Once and for All Time
by mit Ausdruck
Summary: (WIP) Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles... sorry, couldn't help myself. Though, now that I think about it, mostly true. PG13 just in case.
1. Chapter 1

God, I hope this works. Anyways.

Disclaimer - I don't get why people always complain about writing these. If it keeps you from getting sued it's a good thing, right? Anyways, don't own Harry Potter or anything connected to it except for several copies of the books, a stuffed Hedwig and Pigwidgeon and Mrs. Norris, (which doesn't have the right eyes) a stuffed Hagrid, a snitch lamp, a Harry Potter trivia game, and a few bookmarks.

Once and for All Time - chapter 1

_ 'Not Harry!'_

_'Lily, take Harry and go!'_

_'A girl has been taken by the monster,'_

_'Who?'_

_'Ginny Weasley,'_

_'The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies...'_

_'How could you Harry?'_

_'We trusted you!'_

_'Get away from me! I don't ever want to see you again!'_

_'You piece of slime! How could you? You are no son of Lily and James!'_

_'I didn't do it! Please! You have to believe me, I didn't do it! I swear! Just give me Veritaserum, then you'll see! Please!'_

Harry woke with a strangled yelp, thrashing around for a moment, before remembering where he was.

Harry shivered, curling up into a ball in the corner of the small stone cell. The Dementors were getting closer. He could tell, because he was starting to remember the day he was accused of murder. The murder of his only living relatives, the Dursley's.

Vernon, Petunia and Dudley Dursley had been found dead in their homes on July 31st 1997, Harry unconscious beside them, holding the wand that had killed them.

No one had believed he was innocent. Not even Ginny Weasley, who had been his girlfriend since the start of his sixth year. Ron and Hermione wouldn't even come to see him for a last time, not even to tell Harry how much they hated him. Three days after he was found with the Dursley's, the minister for magic found him guilty of murder, and threw him in Azkaban, saying 'hopefully we stopped him before he could become worse than You-Know-Who himself'.

Harry shivered again, more violently this time, as the Dementors came even closer and he was forced to remember every horrible memory he had.

So caught up in terrifying memories, he didn't notice when the Dementors passed his cell. He noticed when they were gone though, as the memories weren't as clear.

Wiping away the tears that had started with the memories, Harry shivered again and curled into a tighter ball. He closed his eyes, trying to get to sleep. The dreams he had weren't as bad as the Dementor induced memories, so he slept as often as he could.

He was just drifting off to sleep when a bright light made him open his eyes. He immediately shut them again, wishing he hadn't opened them. His eyes, so used to darkness, were almost blinded by the light.

The light dimmed, and Harry blinked, trying to make the black spots dancing in his eyes go away. Slowly they disappeared, and he opened his eyes fully to see what the light was. His eyes widened in shock when he saw what was in the middle of his cell.

It was Voldemort.

Voldemort smiled at Harry, his red eyes glinting maliciously.

"Hello Harry. Have you enjoyed your stay?" Harry just looked at the creature, unable to get up the energy to do anything else.

"Shall I take your silence as a yes? Well, that is too bad. You see, you are coming with me." with that, Voldemort snapped his fingers and the cell was engulfed in a bright light. When the light faded, the cell was empty.

Harry and Voldemort appeared on a hill in a flash of light. Harry blinked and looked around bemusedly, unaccustomed to the daylight that bathed everything in a soft yellow glow. When he was finally able to see, as well as he could without glasses, his eyes widened.

All around the hill a battle was raging. Aurors, members of the Order of the Phoenix, students from Hogwarts, regular, ordinary witches and wizards, all were fighting Voldemort's army of Death Eaters. Harry stared around in horror, and Voldemort laughed. The high-pitched sound carried over the battlefield, and all fighting ceased.

All the Death Eaters apparated to their Lord's side, and the people fighting for the light side frantically tried to regroup while they had the time. Voldemort laughed again.

"It is no use to try and fight me!" Voldemort called. "For I have with me the one thing that will destroy you all!" as he spoke, Voldemort shoved Harry in front of him. Not expecting the sudden movement, Harry fell to all fours.

"It's Potter!" a wizard on the light side shouted. Harry clenched his eyes shut. Even now, after all this time, their hate still hurt. Voldemort laughed.

"You see, Dumbledore? You couldn't keep him from me! Harry, join me! I can give you power you never dreamed possible, you will be able to take your revenge on the people who betrayed you!" Harry slowly pushed himself to his feet and turned to face Voldemort.

"Come Harry!" Voldemort urged. "Join me! I will not turn on you as they did. Betraying you on circumstantial evidence! And they called themselves your friends! The people who should have known you the best, who should have known that you would never kill except for a good reason, they turned their backs on you! They will do it again in a heartbeat." even from the distance the light army was from the hill, Harry could hear them mumbling. Voldemort laughed.

"Yes! You hear that Dumbledore? Your beloved saviour was innocent! It was my Death Eaters who killed those muggles, not your precious Harry Potter!" gasps broke out all over the light army, and Voldemort cackled insanely.

"So, Harry," Voldemort turned back to Harry, "take my hand. Join me. I can give you what you want!" Voldemort held out his hand. Harry stared at it, then looked up at Voldemort.

"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches..." he said slowly. His hoarse voice carried over the entire gathering, light and dark alike. "Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies..." Harry wondered how his voice was so steady and clear. He hadn't used it in seven years, except to scream. "And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches..." Harry stopped speaking and stared at Voldemort. Voldemort stared back at Harry, his eyes wide.

"I won't join you." Harry said, slowly. "You've ruined my entire life. The only thing that could possibly make anything better would be your death. So die." with his last words, Harry forced himself to think of everything Voldemort had ever done. Every time the creature had caused him pain, every time the monster killed and, through their connection, forced Harry to watch, every time anything good in Harry's life was destroyed because of the inhuman thing in front of him... Harry forced himself to remember everything. And with the memories came anger. Fury. Hate. Harry took those emotions, and turned them into power.

Harry's eyes started glowing, and Voldemort were bathed in a radiant emerald green light. A wind started, Harry at the centre. His long, greasy, white-streaked black hair whipped around his face. Slowly, Harry was raised off the ground. He lifted his arms up, and the ground shook restlessly before settling. Voldemort's eyes were wide with terror. Dark, angry, yellowish black clouds filled the sky, making it look like an infected wound. Jagged streaks of lightning shot across the sky, followed immediately by roaring, crashing, deafening thunder so loud the ground shook. Then, above Harry, ten bolts of lightning suddenly stopped mid-streak, before entwining. Large drops of rain started pouring down, making the lightning appear even brighter, the only spot of light other than Voldemort, and Harry, who was surrounded by bright green light. The wind became stronger, making the already stinging rain pelt into anything and everything like bullets shot from a muggle gun. Then wind, made visible by all kinds of debris, started circling the pillar of stationary lightning, twisting into an eerily glowing tornado that seemed to float in mid-air. The green light surrounding Harry shot up and wound around the tornado, making it all the more terrifying. Then, with a deafening crack of thunder, the tornado shot down towards Voldemort. Voldemort's eyes widened and he screamed, a sound filled with shock, horror, and dread. Then the glowing pillar hit him, and Voldemort let loose one last, agony-filled scream. The scream was drowned out by another resonating boom of thunder. As the thunder died away, the wind slowed, then stopped, the rain died away, the clouds cleared, and the sun shone down with a strangely white glow. Harry continued to glow for a moment, then the green light died and he slowly dropped until his feet rested on the ground once again.

Most of the people had been knocked to the ground by the wind, the few that remained standing able to do so only by the magic shields they had managed to keep up. Slowly, the people stood up, staring at Harry, mouths gaping and eyes wide.

Harry stood on the hill, breathing heavily, staring at the place Voldemort had been standing. There was nothing there. Not a blade of grass was out of place. It was like Voldemort had never existed.

Slowly, still staring at the spot where Voldemort had been standing, Harry laughed. It was a laugh of pure, unadulterated joy. Harry threw his head back, his arms raised in triumph, and laughed. Slowly, his laugh died away and he stared up at the sky, smiling, arms still raised as though to hold it up. Then, still smiling, he fell backwards, continuing to stare at the sky.

Lying on the ground, Harry closed his eyes and breathed in deeply, running his hands through the grass. He opened his eyes and smiled again, a small, happy smile of contentment.

He didn't know how long he lie there, hands feeling the grass, staring at the sky, breathing in the fresh air, but he came to his senses when he heard someone walking up to him. He blinked, wondering when the sky had gotten so dark. Then his attention went back to the person coming up to him.

"Go away." he said quietly, not moving from his position. The person stopped walking for a moment, then continued towards Harry.

"Go away." Harry repeated, and the person sighed heavily.

"Harry," the person started, and Harry's eyes hardened. He knew that voice. It belonged to the man he had once though was the greatest person and wizard on Earth. Albus Dumbledore.

"I said," Harry said slowly, his voice filled with venom, "to go **_away_**."

"You know I can't do that Harry." Dumbledore said. Harry didn't answer. He didn't move, just continued to look at the sky, now dotted with fluffy pinkish orange clouds. Dumbledore sighed again, and Harry heard the man sit down beside him.

"Harry, you are going to have to come to Hogwarts with me." Dumbledore stopped, waiting for Harry to answer. Harry ignored him. "Madam Pomfrey will have to look you over. You could have hurt yourself with all that magic." Harry didn't say anything. Dumbledore sighed and stood up. He reached down to lift Harry to his feet, but was thrown back by an iridescent green dome that slowly faded back into nothingness. Harry heard some gasps of horror, but ignored them, opting instead to close his eyes and breathe in the fresh spring night air. He heard people rushing to Dumbledore's side, asking if he was all right, and 'what had Harry done to him?'. He heard Dumbledore stand up and say he was fine and that Harry hadn't done anything to him. Harry suppressed a snort. Good Lord was that man daft.

Dumbledore walked back over to Harry, and Harry opened his eyes. Dumbledore's head was bent over Harry's own.

"Would you mind moving?" Harry asked. "You're blocking my view of the sky. Normally that wouldn't be such a bad thing, but when you haven't seen it for seven years you kind of like to look at it." Harry smirked slightly when Dumbledore flinched.

"My dear boy, words can't express how sorry I am -"

"Then don't talk." Harry interrupted, closing his eyes again. Dumbledore sighed sadly.

"Harry, my boy, you have to come with me. Will you let me help you up? With all that magic you used, you are no doubt exhausted." Harry rolled his eyes, not opening them.

"Actually, I feel quite good. Better than I have in seven years, in fact."

"Harry, you must come with me." Dumbledore said in a tone that implied he was talking to a spoilt child. Harry mentally grimaced. Couldn't this guy take a hint?

"I'm not going anywhere. I rather like it here." Harry said, opening his eyes for a moment to look at Dumbledore, before closing them again.

"Harry -"

"Look, I just saved your life, why don't you repay the favour and leave me alone?"

"Harry, you need help! You need to learn how to control your power!" Harry opened his eyes.

"I bloody well know how to control my power you God damned imbecile. Leave me the hell alone," he growled, glaring at Dumbledore. Dumbledore looked taken aback. Harry smirked, then sat up quickly. Dumbledore barely moved his head out of the way fast enough.

Harry stretched his arms above his head, then jumped to his feet. He smiled sweetly at a stunned Dumbledore.

"Well, it hasn't been nice talking to you, so I'm leaving now. Hopefully I won't see you around." and with that, Harry turned away and walked calmly down the hill, and through all the staring people gathered at the bottom.

"Harry! Harry, please, wait!" Harry flinched at the voice. He stopped and let the girl come up to him.

"Oh Harry, Harry, I'm so sorry! Harry, please don't be angry at me, please," Ginny Weasley begged, hanging onto his arm. Harry looked at her with cold eyes, then slowly, calmly, pulled her hands off his arm. He started walking again, not giving the redheaded girl a second glance.

"Harry! I love you!" Ginny screamed after him.

"No you don't." Harry said, not looking back. Then, to everyone's shock, he simply disappeared.

Harry looked around dazedly, wondering where he was. He wasn't even sure how he got to wherever it was he was. He had just wanted to get away from Ginny, and the pain she brought. Harry shook his head to clear it, immediately wishing he hadn't when it started pounding. He put his arm out and leant against a tree, holding his head with his other hand.

Contrary to what he had told Dumbledore, he felt completely drained. He wasn't even sure how he had made it off the ground and down the hill without collapsing he felt so weak.

His head stopped pounding eventually, though it still ached, and he started walking. As he stumbled through the trees, he fell a great many times, getting a great many cuts and scratches each time he did. By the time he found the place, he was so tired and weak he wasn't even sure if he was actually seeing it.

'It' was a huge castle in the middle of a huge forest. There were quite a few crumbling grey bricks along the top of the outside wall, and it was covered in moss. It had obviously been uninhabited for some time.

Deciding that he didn't care if it was a figment of his imagination, and just wanting a place where it was safe to lie down, comfortably or not, Harry slowly made his way to the huge, amazingly well preserved wooden door.

Once at the doors, Harry grasped the handle of one of them and pulled. The door didn't budge. Harry pulled harder, but nothing happened.

"Oh, come on! Open up!" Harry cried softly, weakly hitting the door with his fist. To his amazement, the door opened inwards soundlessly. Harry blinked at the door, then shrugged and made his way inside.

It was dark inside the castle, the only light coming from the open door. Everything was covered in a thick layer of dust, muting any sound made. From what Harry could see, he was in a large entrance hall. In front of him, in the middle of the hall, was a huge staircase. There were doorways leading off the entrance hall, and Harry moved to the closest one, not willing to try and make his way up the stairs.

The room on the other side of the doorway was some kind of sitting room, with a huge fireplace on one wall, with several chairs, a couch and a table in front of it. Harry sighed gratefully made his way over to them.

Reaching the couch he dropped down onto it, making a huge cloud of dust rise up. He sneezed four times successively, then slowly lay down, careful to not disturb any more dust. Once lying down, he had only to close his eyes before falling asleep.

Harry woke slowly, feeling more refreshed than he had in years. Sighing contentedly, he stretched his arms and sat up, running a tired hand over his face. Blinking, Harry looked around, taking a moment to process the realisation that he could see perfectly well. Frowning, Harry brought a hand up to see if he was wearing glasses. He almost hit himself. Of course he wasn't wearing glasses! But if he wasn't wearing glasses, how could he see? Harry frowned, then shrugged, deciding he'd find out later. Right now he was starving.

He stood up and left the room and started looking for a kitchen, hoping that whoever the castle had belonged to had been a wizard and had charmed the kitchen to always have food.

After five minutes of searching and constant growling from a stomach Harry was certain was trying to eat itself, he finally found the kitchen. It seemed as though the castle _had _belonged to a magical person, as the kitchen was full of fresh food. It was all rather medieval, but at the time Harry didn't care about anything other than getting food into his stomach.

Once he finished eating all that he possibly could, Harry headed back to the room with the couch. For feeling so refreshed not long ago, he was exhausted.

When he got to the couch, he dropped down on it, falling asleep before he could even see the dust cloud that rose around him.

When Harry woke the second time, he was hungry again, though nowhere near as hungry as he had been. Getting up from the couch, Harry made his way back to the kitchen and ate what he decided to call lunch.

'What to do now?' Harry asked himself once he finished lunch. Sitting back in his chair for a moment, Harry shrugged. He might as well explore, now that he wasn't tired.

Deciding to start at the front doors, Harry left the kitchen and walked to said doors. When he reached them, he frowned. They were both closed tight, but he could have sworn he hadn't closed the door last night, or whenever it was he came in. Shrugging and chalking it up to magic, Harry started to explore.

The first place he went was the room where he had slept. It was obviously day out, as the stained-glass windows above the fireplace were letting in quite a bit of light.

The fireplace dominated the wall to the left of the doorway, and the stained-glass gave the room a kind of dappled rainbow effect. On the three other walls there were huge tapestries, each depicting a different scene. The one straight across from the door showed two wizards fighting each other, one with black hair and blue eyes, and the other with blonde hair and green eyes. What Harry thought was rather interesting was that the tapestry didn't move. There hadn't been many tapestries in Hogwarts, but the ones that were there moved just like the portraits. It didn't make sense that the tapestries in this castle didn't move, since it had obviously belonged to a witch or wizard. The kitchen was proof. Unless, of course, the castle had originally been owned by muggles. But no, that couldn't be it, because of what the tapestry depicted.

Harry shook his head. This was giving him a headache. He'd worry about it after he finished exploring.

The other two tapestries in the room depicted the outcome of the two wizards' duel. The wizard with blonde hair and green eyes had apparently won. The couch, chairs and table in front of the fireplace were the only other things in the room, besides the dust.

Another doorway off the entrance hall led to another huge room, almost as big as the hall itself. This room was a dining hall, bigger than the Great Hall at Hogwarts. And instead of four house tables and one head table, there was only one table. It sat in the middle of the room, and stretched almost the entire length of the room. It would have seated at least two hundred people Harry was certain. Probably more.

Across the hall from the Duel Room and Dining Room, as Harry later decided to call them to keep himself from going mad with trying to remember everything, was one other doorway. It was closed off by a pair of wooden doors almost as big as the doors that led into the castle. These ones, though, were carved with beautiful flowers, trees and birds. Harry opened one of the doors with difficulty, then stared around the room, mouth open slightly.

The room was ten times bigger than the Entrance Hall and the Great Hall at Hogwarts combined, and lit brightly by the sun. There was more window than wall on the two walls to the right and front of the doors. There were huge glass doors in the windowed wall across from the entrance doors, that led out to what would have been a beautiful garden at one time. Harry wondered how the owners of the castle had managed enough glass to make a wall. There weren't even visible seams in the glass. Even with magic, it was quite a feat.

To the left of the entrance doors was a platform that took up about a quarter of the length of the room, raised twenty steps above the main floor. Two staircases led up to the platform, one on either side. A latticework railing went across the otherwise open end of the platform.

Hanging from the ceiling, which was so high Harry almost couldn't see it, were huge crystal chandeliers. There were thirty all together. Shaking his head bemusedly, Harry left the room slowly, carefully closing the door behind him. Glancing up and down the hallway, Harry shrugged to himself, bored with the main floor. He glanced around again, then started walking up the staircase.

Looking up as he walked up the stairs, Harry was just beginning to realise how huge the castle actually was. He couldn't even see up to the top of the castle from his place on the stairs.

Getting off the stairs at the first landing, Harry explored all the rooms on that level.

There was a room filled with every kind of musical instrument ever made or invented, along with two walls full of music books. There was a room that seemed to be a type of game room, though Harry couldn't figure out how you would play anything in it. There was a library, almost as big as the Ball Room, (Harry couldn't think of anything else the room with the two window walls would be) filled to the brim with books. Every room had a huge fireplace. The library had two that Harry could see.

'Hermione would love this place,' Harry caught himself thinking as he poked around the library. He shoved those thoughts ruthlessly from his mind before he could get depressed. He had been rather happy exploring until he thought of his one time friend.

There were several other rooms on the level that Harry didn't go into. He was beginning to get tired again, and he wanted to see if he could find a bed, instead of going back to sleep on the couch.

He went back to the staircase and went up another level. It was a floor devoted to baths. Harry lingered there for a moment, thinking about how nice a hot bath would be after being constantly cold for seven years, but a wave of tiredness washed over him and he continued his search for a bed.

The next floor up was the one with the bedrooms. Harry stuck his head into a few that he thought were probably originally for guests, before finding what he figured to be the master bedroom.

It was _enormous_. The bed itself, which only took up a tiny, insignificant part of the room, was at least ten feet square.

The sight of the bed, which was covered in dust just like everything else in the castle, made Harry's eyes droop tiredly. He shuffled his way over to the bed, waving his hand as he went. When he reached the bed, all the dust had been cleared away.

Harry slipped under the heavy comforter, and gave a contented sigh as he sank into the mattress. He was asleep within seconds.

End of chapter

I always told myself I wouldn't do this, but what the heck. Read and review please!

Hero


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer - (this disclaimer will be, from now on, known as deep announcer voice The Only Disclaimer!) I don't own Harry Potter. I am not making any profit off of this story, and it is written purely for my own enjoyment.

sum1strange - MY FIRST REVIEWER! Thank you! I love that movie tooD "So, you'll put down your rock, and I'll put down my sword, and we'll try to kill each other like civilised people?" grin

Sticky2.U - Second reviewer! Thanks so much! You made me decide to post this chapter sooner than I was going to. D

...though I was hoping for more than two reviews... oh well... sigh...

Once and for All Time - chapter 2

When Harry woke up for the third time, he felt more energized than ever. He lie in the huge bed for a few minutes, not wanting to leave the warm, comfortable dent he had made in the mattress. Then, deciding he wanted to explore more of the castle, he jumped out of the bed. Glancing around, he decided to start exploring in the bedroom he had slept in.

On the wall furthest away from the door were two huge windows. They were covered by curtains made of some dark, thick material, making the room dark. Harry pulled them open, blinking as sunlight filled the room. Once his eyes were used to the light, Harry examined the curtains. They were a dark blue, trimmed in a gold and silver cord. On either side of the window were gold and silver sashes, and Harry tied the curtains back with them.

The bed was pushed up against the wall in the middle of the room. The frame was made out of some kind of dark, reddish-brown wood, as was the headboard that reached up to the ceiling. The footboard was raised a few feet above the mattress. There were two nightstands on either side of the bed, pushed up against the wall, made out of the same wood as the frame. Both nightstands had large, old-fashioned candleholders sitting on them. The comforter was of the same dark blue material as the curtains. It was also trimmed in gold and silver cord. The sheets and pillows were a lighter colour blue, and had a dusting of gold and silver stars all over.

Between the bed and the windows, pushed up against the wall the bed was against, was a giant wardrobe. Opening it, Harry found it to be full of clothes. Half of the wardrobe was filled with clothes for men, and the other half was for women. The clothes were all made of heavy material, were rather old fashioned, and completely opulent. There was a dresser beside the wardrobe, almost the same size as said wardrobe. It was also filled with old-fashioned clothes.

On the wall in front of the bed was a giant fireplace, with a couch and two chairs in front, made out of the same wood as the other furniture. There was a light blue rug on the floor right in front of the fireplace, and the furniture had pillows covered with the dark blue material and edged in gold and silver.

The last piece of furniture was a desk sitting in the corner between the fireplace and the door.

One thing Harry noticed was that there was no toilet. There had been toilets at Hogwarts, so Harry had just assumed that the magical community had toilets before muggles had. So either this castle was older that Harry had thought, or he was completely wrong about the toilets. He suspected the latter. Sighing, he walked over to the windows to open them, as the room did smell musty. The windows opened outwards with a loud squeak. Harry frowned at the windows. The entrance doors had opened without a sound. Why did these windows squeak? Shrugging, Harry turned to leave the room when something caught his eye.

There was a small door in the wall to the left of the windows. He hadn't seen it before as it had been mostly covered by a large tapestry. Frowning curiously, Harry put his hand on the doorknob and pulled the door open.

The door opened to reveal a room, tiny compared to the rest of the castle. It was about the size of his room that he had had at the Dursley's (Harry shook himself to get those thoughts out of his head), and appeared to be a lavatory.

There was a washstand complete with bowl, water pitcher, and a towel that at one time had probably been white, but was now a grimy black. In the corner opposite the washstand there was a round seat with a wooden top. Walking over to it, Harry lifted the top up and looked down. It seemed like he had found the toilet. Shuddering slightly, Harry put the top back down and turned to leave, and caught sight of himself in a mirror.

Eyes wide, he stared at himself. That couldn't possibly be him. He looked so old! He was only twenty-four!

His once jet-black hair was long and matted and streaked with white. His beard, which he had gotten so used to he had forgotten about it, was also streaked with white. His eyes were sunken and hollow, and his cheekbones looked like they were trying to push their way out of his skin. He moved closer to the mirror, touching his face, not sure it was really his. A moment later he was standing right in front of the mirror, and was turning his head to the side when the mirror blinked, stared at him for a moment, then screamed.

Not expecting the sound, Harry yelled and jumped backwards, heart pounding. He stumbled and fell, and hurriedly pushed himself away from the mirror until he ran into the wall.

"ÁrdÇ½de Heofonas!" the mirror cried in a distinctly feminine voice, and Harry got the impression that if it could, it was pressing a hand over it's heart. "Hwæt eart þu?" Harry stared at the mirror, breathing heavily. The mirror frowned. "Ymbsprecan!" it demanded.

"Sorry, what?" Harry asked, starting to get over his shock. The mirror frowned again.

"Hwæt?" asked the mirror, and Harry shook his head.

"Sorry, I have no idea what you said." the mirror stared at him.

"Hwæt eart þu?" the mirror repeated, and Harry rolled his eyes.

"Oh, this is hopeless. What language are you speaking?" the mirror just gave him a strange look. Harry groaned.

"Wonderful. Just wonderful. I destroy Voldemort easily, yet a talking mirror stops me in my tracks." he muttered, leaning his head back on the wall.

"What are you muttering about?" Harry blinked and stared at the mirror.

"Did you just talk?" he asked blankly.

"Oh, so _now _you can speak Anglo-Saxon eh?" the mirror said, raising it's eyebrows sardonically. Harry frowned at it.

"No, I can't. Anglo-Saxon? How old is this place anyways?" the mirror frowned at Harry.

"What does it matter to you? And what are you doing in the Master's room? He will not be happy to find you here." the mirror said snootily. Harry looked skyward, then stood up.

"I _hate _to break it to you," he said sarcastically, "but I'm the first person to step foot in here for at least a thousand years." the mirror stared at him.

"What?" it said after a moment, "A thousand... no, you... I don't... you can't be... a _thousand_?" it stuttered, and Harry nodded. The mirror gave the impression of slumping back against the wall and stared ahead.

"A thousand years..." it whispered, then gave the equivalent of shaking it's head and looked at Harry. "Well, I suppose that makes you the Master. I am terribly sorry for my rudeness a moment ago, but, well, I thought you were trespassing." Harry tilted his head to the side, smiling slightly. He was liking this mirror for some strange reason.

"That's all right. Do you have a name?"

"Beorhtwaru, my Lord." the mirror said. Harry frowned. "Do you have a name, my Lord?"

"Harry." Harry said, giving the mirror a strange look. "Why are you calling me my Lord?" Beorhtwaru blinked, then gave Harry a strange look.

"You are the Lord of the castle, are you not? Therefore, you are the Lord of everything in the castle, making you my Lord. My Lord." Beorhtwaru added, with a movement that Harry thought was a bow. Harry grimaced.

"Please don't call me lord. It brings back bad memories." Beorhtwaru blinked, then nodded.

"All right my L- er, what should I call you?"

"Harry would be fine." Beorhtwaru gave Harry a questioning look.

"Are you certain, my L- I mean, Harry? Do you not think it's improper?"

"It's not improper at all. Can you tell me anything about the person who you used to... er... serve?" Beorhtwaru frowned.

"I don't know," she said. "I never did know much about him. He only every asked my opinion on how he looked. He was _quite_ the looker!" Beorhtwaru giggled, and Harry gave her a strange look. "Anyways, once he did tell me something else, but he made me promise not to tell anyone so I don't know if I should tell you..."

"I don't think he'd mind. And, after all, I am the new 'master' of the place, aren't I? I'll need to know everything about it if I'm going to be able to take care of the place." Beorhtwaru frowned undecidedly, before nodding.

"You're right. He told me that he had written some kind of books... journals, I think he called them, and that he hid them in a secret place beside his bed. He told me because he wanted someone else besides him to know, so that I could tell someone where they were if they needed them." Harry nodded slowly.

"Beside the bed? Right. Thanks, Beorhtwaru." the mirror smiled.

"You are welcome, Harry. And just between you and me, you should really get rid of that beard, and brush your hair. You look like a savage! And eat something too!" Harry rolled his eyes and grinned at the mirror before leaving the room.

Once in the bedroom, Harry immediately went to the bed. He examined the bed itself, and the wall surrounding the bed. Not finding anything, Harry stepped back and looked at the bed, frowning. His gaze landed on the nightstand, and he shook his head in disbelief.

"No way," he muttered, stepping towards the piece of furniture. He pulled open the drawer, and stared at the contents incredulously.

"What kind of person hides something in one of the most obvious places?" he asked himself, reaching into the drawer and pulling out three leather bound books.

Shaking his head, Harry sat down on the bed and opened the first book to the first page and bean reading.

The man who wrote the journals was fascinating, and Harry found himself hanging on every word the man had written.

In the journals, Ælfric told the story of his life, of the castle, and of everything in it.

Harry learnt that Beorhtwaru had been the ghost of a young chambermaid who had died from a mysterious illness, and how she had agreed to be joined to the mirror, so that she would be able to give her fashion advise, which was, apparently, wonderful, to whoever needed it.

Harry learned that Ælfric, who had been a wizard of the purest blood line possible, placed a spell on the castle so that, once his family line had died out, as he knew it would, the next person to set foot in the castle would become the owner, and be able to do what he wanted with it. Harry grinned slightly at the thought of what most women would say to Ælfric if they found out he hadn't included women in the spell.

Harry also learned that his newly acquired castle had more staircases, secret passageways, and hidden rooms than Hogwarts itself. At the thought of Hogwarts, Harry closed his eyes as a wave of pain flooded through him. Then he shook his head, silently scolding himself for feeling anything about _that_ place.

When Harry finally finished reading all three journals, which he had done without stopping, he was exhausted and starving. Putting the journals back in the nightstand, Harry stood up and stretched. Then, stumbling slightly, he walked out of the bedroom and towards the kitchen.

Halfway down the staircase, Harry stopped, remembering what Ælfric had written in one of the journals. Shaking his head at himself, Harry went back to the master bedroom and opened the secret door beside the bed. The secret door that went straight to the kitchen.

Stepping through the door, Harry felt the strangest sensation of falling and floating at the same time. A moment later his feet touched the ground with a slight thump, and he was in the kitchen. Harry ate all he could, stuffing himself so full that he thought he would burst.

When he finished eating, Harry opened the secret door that led from the kitchen to the master bedroom, silently thanking Ælfric for putting the doors in.

Back in the master bedroom, Harry stood halfway between the door and the bed, undecided as to what he should do. Sleep, or explore? Eventually, curiosity got the better of him, and he walked up the stairs to the next floor.

This floor had only two doors, one on either side of the staircase. Choosing the door to the right of the staircase, Harry stepped into the room on the other side.

Harry realised it was the practice room Ælfric had written about. There were wardrobes upon wardrobes filled with weapons and armour, and all kinds of strange practice equipment. There were mats made out of some weird material on the floor, and when Harry stepped on them, he grinned curiously. He couldn't even describe the feeling of the mats.

Walking around the room, Harry found himself remembering things from Ælfric's journals that he couldn't even remember reading.

He remembered that there was an instruction book on how to use everything in the practice room, though Ælfric couldn't remember where he had hidden it.

'_So_,' Harry thought to himself, '_that means I have to find it myself_.'

Finishing his poking about in the practice room, Harry went to the other room on the fifth floor. It was the duelling arena Ælfric's great great great great great great grandfather had put in. Harry stepped inside, and was about to walk around the room when a loud voice cried out.

"HALT!" Harry froze, before remembering a page from Ælfric's journal and sighing in relief. Turning to his left, Harry smiled slightly and bowed.

"Lord Earnulf," he said respectfully when he straightened. The ghost of the old man in front of him started in surprise.

"You know me?" the ghost asked, and Harry nodded.

"I do. Who could not know of the greatest duelling master the world had ever known?" Harry bit down a grin when Earnulf blushed and puffed his chest out.

"Well, I would not say the greatest, but I was certainly good in my time."

"Oh, surely you are still as good as you once were!" Harry exclaimed, and the ghost smiled modestly.

"Perhaps, perhaps. Say, what is your name, young man?"

"Harry Potter sir, at your service." Harry replied, bowing again. Earnulf nodded slowly, circling Harry just as slowly as he nodded.

"Hmm... yes... yes,... hmmm... could do with some work... hmm..."

"Er, not to be rude, but what are you doing?" Harry asked, turning with the ghost. Earnulf stopped circling and looked Harry up and down.

"You are rather malnourished, and you obviously have not been doing much work for several years, but you have a good build, and much promise."

"Much promise for what?" Harry asked, starting to get exasperated. Earnulf looked surprised.

"Why, to be a great dueller of course." Harry paused, then gave the ghost a strange look.

"A dueller?" he asked slowly, and Earnulf nodded.

"Yes. A dueller. I have been in this castle for many years, most of which have been spent as a ghost in this room. I have trained several young men, and a woman once. They were all very good, and all had promise, but they did not have the right drive. I believe I am right in saying that you," here, Earnulf looked deep into Harry's eyes, "have the drive. The same drive that I had, that made me become the dueller I was." Earnulf finished, and Harry tilted his head to the side thoughtfully.

"Is that why you stayed?" he asked suddenly, "because you wanted to find someone willing to become a great duellist?" Earnulf nodded. Harry continued to look at the ghost thoughtfully.

"You want to train me?" Earnulf nodded again, and Harry smiled. "Then I accept." Earnulf

smiled widely.

"Wonderful! I knew you would take me up on my offer! Now, before we really begin, you will have to get some food on your bones, and build up your muscles." for the next hour, Earnulf told Harry what he had to do to get in good enough shape to begin learning to duel properly. When Earnulf finished explaining everything, Harry left the duelling room, promising to do as he had been told, and promising to come to the duelling room at least once every day.

As Harry left the room, his stomach rumbled, and he smiled wryly.

"My life is completely ruled by my stomach." he muttered, making his way down to the kitchen. After eating a small amount of food, (Earnulf said that it wasn't a good idea to start stuffing yourself if you only ate a little bit for years, as Harry had done.) just enough to stop his stomach from rumbling, Harry went back to the master bedroom and picked up Ælfric's journals. He wanted to read them again, to see if he could pick up anything else about the castle. Harry sat down in the strangely dust-free couch in front of the fireplace, getting comfortable before opening the first journal.

Harry blinked stupidly at the book several times before he actually believed what he was seeing. On the first page of the first journal, in Ælfric's writing, were words completely different from what Harry had first read. Harry stared at the book a moment longer, before hitting himself on the forehead.

"Well, duh." he muttered, wanting to kick himself for being so stupid. Ælfric was a wizard. One who had lived a very long time at that. There was no way he had managed to put everything into only three journals. So either he would have had to written in many more journals, or else just put a spell on the first three and keep writing in them, which is what he had obviously done.

After hitting himself of the forehead again, Harry started reading the 'new' journals. Once again, he found himself entranced in Ælfric's words. He learnt even more about the castle, who had lived in it, the ghosts that still inhabited it, and, most importantly, what protection spells were placed on the castle, and how he could change them to suit his own needs.

After finishing the three same-yet-different journals, Harry stood up and walked to the front doors of the castle.

All of the castle's protection spells had been cast from the doors, and in his journals Ælfric strongly recommended that any changes or new spells should be cast from the same place.

Standing in front of the door, Harry reached for his wand, before rolling his eyes at himself. Of course he didn't have his wand. The minister snapped it in half.

Harry felt a pang of loss at the thought of his wand, then shook his head. He had to do the spells. But how? Harry frowned thoughtfully, then shrugged. It was worth a try.

He put both his hands flat on the doors, one on each. Closing his eyes, he concentrated on the castle. Almost immediately he got an image of brightly coloured lines weaving around each other to form an almost solid net of light around the castle and grounds.

Harry's eyes flew open, and he stared at his hands in wonder. Then, taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and concentrated again. The image came again, and this time Harry concentrated on figuring out which line was which spell, for that's what the lines were. All the different spells different people had cast on the castle. Some of them were old, some newer, some powerful, some weak, but together, they were nearly impenetrable.

When he finally understood how the spells worked and which was which, Harry cast his own protection spell. It kept out anyone who was looking for him, stopping them from even thinking of looking anywhere around the castle. And if they did look around the castle, they wouldn't find it, also because of Harry's spell. Though the other spells helped a great deal.

When Harry finished, he stumbled back from the doors, running into a wall, breathing heavily, his forehead coated in sweat. Holding onto the wall with one hand, he bent over and wrapped an arm around his stomach. God, it hurt so much! He slowly slid down the wall until he was curled into a ball on the floor.

He didn't know how long he stayed like that, but finally the pain faded. It didn't stop completely, but it went away enough so he could stand up.

Harry clumsily pushed himself to his feet, and stumbled to the secret door in the kitchen. Making it to his room, Harry collapsed on the bed, exhausted.

"And just where have you been?" Harry grimaced at the lecturing tone Beorhtwaru adopted.

"I've been sleeping." he answered, making his way to the 'toilet'. "Would you mind not looking?" he asked over his shoulder at Beorhtwaru. Beorhtwaru huffed, and made a great show of turning her back on Harry. Harry rolled his eyes and looked back to the wall.

"Finished?" Beorhtwaru asked moodily.

"Yes, thanks." Harry answered, standing in front of the mirror.

"Good. And how is it possible you slept for three days?" asked Beorhtwaru accusingly. Harry blinked at the mirror, then frowned.

"Three days? I've been asleep for _three days_?" Beorhtwaru nodded, and Harry shook his head. "No wonder I'm so hungry," he muttered, turning to leave the lavatory.

"Ah ah ah!" Beorhtwaru exclaimed, making Harry freeze. "You are not going anywhere until you clean yourself up!"

"I am clean!" Beorhtwaru gave a distinctly unfeminine snort.

"Clean my foot. You're hair is filthy, your beard even more so, your skin is so dirty you look like you have black skin, your fingernails are so cracked and dirty they look more like infected wounds than anything else! I can only imagine what the backs of your ears look like."

"Are you finished?" Harry asked testily, looking at the mirror in an annoyed way. Beorhtwaru sniffed.

"I am finished telling you where you are dirty, but only because you are getting annoyed at me. Now clean up!"

"Fine, fine." Harry grumbled, waving his hand over himself. Beorhtwaru whistled.

"Impressive. Wish I could have done that when I was alive." Harry smiled slightly, looking himself over. He looked much better, though he still looked like he had spent years in prison along with his worst nightmares.

His face, now that it was clean, was so white it was almost see-through. His eyes were sunken and dull, and his cheekbones looked more than ever like they were trying to push through his skin. He looked too skinny to be allowed, like the slightest puff of air would break him into a million pieces. But the good points almost outweighed the bad ones.

His hair was as messy as the last time he had looked into a mirror before he had been sent to Azkaban, though the white streaks somehow made it look like it was purposely messy. He didn't look as much like a savage and more like a civilised person. And damn! it felt good to be clean!

His smile widening, Harry winked at Beorhtwaru, who winked back.

"See! I _told_ you you would look better! And I was right, of course. And you definitely should _not _grow a beard, ever. It does not suit you at all." Harry nodded, hiding an amused smile.

"I believe you. And please, don't ever let me go for so long without cleaning up." Beorhtwaru nodded and Harry got the impression she was saluting. Harry mock-saluted back, then turned to leave the lavatory when his stomach grumbled loudly.

"I'll be by later, Twaru." Harry said over his shoulder, surprising himself when he shortened Beorhtwaru's name. Shaking his head he made his way to the not-so-secret-anymore door and was at the kitchen a second later.

After eating, once again just a little bit as Earnulf had told him, Harry went up to the ghost's domain.

"Ah Harry!" Earnulf said happily when Harry entered into the duelling room. "Wonderful to see you! I must say, you look much better than last time you were in. Beorhtwaru got a hold of you did she?" Harry smiled and nodded.

"She did. How are you today, sir?" Earnulf nodded approvingly at Harry.

"Very good my boy. Are you ready to start learning?" Harry nodded, feeling eager despite himself.

"Yes, I am ready. Though you should know that I just ate."

"Fine, fine. I was just going to go over terms and such today anyways. Make yourself comfortable and we will begin." Harry nodded, sitting cross-legged on the floor.

"Ready?" asked Earnulf, and Harry nodded eagerly. "Excellent! Now, do you know the proper way to hold your wand in a duel?"

__

Well, that's done. Hope you enjoyed it! Now come on, PLEASE give me more than two reviews! Five! Five, that's all I ask! (And before I posted a story I told myself I would never ask for reviews. Shows how much I knew eh?) Oh, and can someone tell me how to fix a grammatical error in chapter one? I don't know how to get back to fix it.

Thanx!

Hero


	3. Chapter 3

Red Bess Rackham – Thanks! Hope you got around to the next chapter... D

CherryChick914 – Thank you! I hope it's original! I don't want to be accused of plagiarism. )

Jessie! Hi! waves furiously Glad you liked it! How's school?

And now the story! But first, as is a must with anything even remotely fanfictionish, a disclaimer.

deep announcer voice Hero Girl does not own Harry Potter. She is not making any profit off of this story, and it is written purely for her own enjoyment.

Once and for All Time - chapter 3

Harry sighed happily, staring up at the blue sky. All around him was peaceful silence, the wind across the lake the only sound.

Harry couldn't believe he hadn't gone outside his first day at the castle. Who wants to bother with walls and rooms when they could go outside and have none of that?

'_No,_' Harry said to himself, '_There's nothing wrong with being inside with walls and rooms. It's just being inside on a day like today. I'm sure I wouldn't like to be out here if it was freezing or something._' Harry shook his head. Who cared? He didn't.

Being the first day he had gone outside to the grounds surrounding the castle, Harry had thought he would spend the day exploring like he had in the castle. Instead, he ended up lying at the edge of a huge lake, in grass that was at least three feet high. He rather liked the green of the grass against the blue sky. It was very pretty.

Every now and then small, puffy white clouds would travel across Harry's range of vision, and he would amuse himself by finding shapes in the clouds, something he had never been able to do when he was growing up. Then the clouds would pass, leaving a clear patch of sky, and Harry would just stare at it, thinking nothing in particular.

Eventually, though, he did end up thinking about something in particular. With someone like Lord Earnulf teaching you, it was rather hard to forget about duelling for any great length of time. But Harry found that he didn't mind learning what or how Earnulf was teaching him. He actually enjoyed it quite a lot.

So that was how Harry spent most of the afternoon, staring at the sky, going over what Earnulf had taught him, and finding shapes in the clouds when they happened by. He couldn't remember ever feeling so relaxed.

When the sky started to darken, Harry sat up and glanced around lazily, wondering what to do next. He could go back to the castle and get something to eat, but it was such a beautiful night his body repelled the idea of going back inside. Shrugging slightly, Harry jumped to his feet. There was still plenty of light, more than enough to go exploring. And he could just conjure a light if it got too dark.

Harry started walking, determined to see at least a quarter of the castle grounds before he went back inside. But after walking until dark and still not coming anywhere near the wards, which he could somehow sense, Harry realised that the grounds were much, _much_ larger than he had originally thought. He also realised that it would take a whole heck of a lot longer than a few hours to see a quarter of the grounds. It would probably take him his whole life to see just that much!

'_Well, maybe not that long. But still, a really long time._' Harry stopped walking and did an about face. It would be easy to get back to the castle. He had been wading through waist high grass the whole time, and even though it was dark he could see where the blades had been broken by his body.

Harry stood debating whether he should go back to the castle yet or not, when his stomach made the decision for him. So, with a loudly rumbling stomach, Harry headed back to the castle, muttering to himself about how his life really _was_ ruled by his stomach.

"And just where have you been young man?" Harry rolled his eyes.

"What are you, my mother?" he asked, glancing to Beorhtwaru. Beorhtwaru glared at him.

"No, just protecting my owner. You could have been eaten by rabid wolves!" Harry snorted, and gave Beorhtwaru an amused glance.

"Rabid wolves? Rabid wolves couldn't have got through the wards."

"How do you know one of the previous owners of the castle didn't own some rabid wolves?"

Harry raised an eyebrow.

"Even if one of them did own rabid wolves, they would hardly be alive now."

"They could have had pups!"

"They would have killed each other before they could have pups." Beorhtwaru sniffed haughtily and looked away.

"Fine. If that is how you are going to be, I will no longer worry about you." Harry smiled fondly at the mirror.

"I'm sorry, Beorhtwaru. I just like teasing you, you know that. I was outside all day yesterday, and when I got back I was too tired to do anything but eat something and go to sleep. Otherwise I would have come and said goodnight."

"Oh." Beorhtwaru looked back at Harry slowly. "Well, all right. I forgive you. Just don't do that again!"

"Yes ma'am!" Harry saluted sharply then turned and marched out of the lavatory, grinning when Beorhtwaru cried out

"Cheek!"

"You know it!" he called back, and chuckled when Beorhtwaru muttered something about annoying grown up children.

Harry stopped in the middle of his room, looking around. What to do, what to do? He glanced around again, mouth twisted to the side thoughtfully. Then his eyes lit up and he fairly bounced out of the room, grinning like mad.

"Earnie! EEEEEAAAAARNIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEE!" he yelled, bounding into the dueling room. He stopped dead in the centre of the room, grinning at the disgruntle form of Lord Earnulf.

"You seem to be in a good mood today, Harry." Earnulf said, giving Harry an annoyed look. Harry smiled innocently.

"Why, yes, yes I am. I am in quite a good mood. I spent all day outside yesterday."

"Hmmm." Earnulf gave Harry a strange look. "Did you eat anything whilst you were out of doors?"

"Whilst I was out of doors? No, I ate nothing whilst I was out of doors. I did eat something whilst I was in of doors, though." replied Harry, grinning madly. Earnulf frowned.

"What did you eat?" Harry frowned thoughtfully.

"Hmmm... I ate... chicken! And potatoes. And some salad. It was very good." said Harry as he stared off into space.

"Salad?" Earnulf interrupted, and Harry nodded.

"Yuppers. Salad."

"Ah! That explains it."

"Explains what?"

"Why you are acting so strangely today."

"I am not acting strangely!"

"You are extremely happy and carefree today. That is not normal for you. So if therefore follows that you are acting strangely." Harry nodded thoughtfully.

"Can't argue with that. So how does eating salad explain why I am 'acting strangely'?" Earnulf smiled slightly, obviously amused.

"Quite a few years ago, when there was a rather large family living here, one of the sons was extremely mischievous. One day, he placed a spell on the salads the family was eating, and they all became extremely carefree. The son got in quite a lot of trouble, though I must say that it had been quite a long time since I had had that much fun." Earnulf stopped talking, a faraway look in his eyes and a wide grin on his face. Harry cleared his throat impatiently.

"And?" he prompted, and Earnulf shook himself.

"Oh, I am sorry. Got lost in thought for a moment."

"Oh, unfamiliar territory?"

"Quite, I -" Earnulf paused, and then glared at Harry. Harry bent over double, side shaking with laughter.

"As I was saying!" Earnulf said loudly, and Harry forced himself to stop laughing. He couldn't get rid of the grin on his face though.

"Yes, as you were saying?"

"Hm. Yes. The son got in trouble, but he enjoyed the joke so much he placed another spell, this time on the entire kitchen. I do not know the exact spell, all I know is that it would randomly spell the salad the same way the boy had the first time. So no one knew when they were going to get a bespelled salad, and they eventually stopped eating the salad. I am rather pleased to find out that the spell has lasted this long." Harry stared at Earnulf.

"So I ate a cursed salad?" he asked, and Earnulf shook his head.

"No, you are a _spelled_ salad. Curses are completely different from spells."

"Oh yeah? How so?"

"Curses would be spells, but for the fact that their caster's intent is malice."

"Well, I think putting a spell on salad is malicious."

"Oh, I am certain you will find this whole event rather funny at some point in the future."

"Yeah right." Harry said sarcastically. Then he glanced around the room, back to Earnulf, then jumped up and down twice.

"Who cares? Would you teach me duelling today, Earnie?" Earnulf frowned.

"I most certainly will not. You are not in your right mind. You will probably end up cursing me,

and not being able to undo it when you are sane."

"Who wants to be sane? And I couldn't curse you anyways. It would just go right through you."

"Perhaps, but it would still give me some rather _negative_ reactions." Earnulf gave Harry a meaningful look, and Harry frowned, tilting his head to the side. Then his eyes lit up.

"Ooohhh! I get it! Okay! Bye bye! See you later! Don't hex anything _whilst_ I'm away!" Harry waved a hand over his shoulder as he bounded out of the room, leaving a very amused Earnulf behind.

Harry spent the rest of the day bouncing about the castle. He went into rooms he hadn't explored yet, jumped around a bit, then continued on his way.

Somehow, he eventually ended up back at his room. He stood in the doorway for a moment, staring around, then took a running leap into the bed. He was asleep the moment his head hit the pillow.

Bright sunlight shone in through the window, bathing Harry in an ethereal glow. Harry groaned loudly, pulling the comforter over his head.

"Bloody sun. Bloody stupid salad. Bloody Earnulf. He knew this would happen." Harry muttered to himself, curling up in a tight ball under the blanket. Then he groaned again, throwing the comforter off and sitting up. It was too hot! He blinked sleepily, running a tired hand over his face. He groaned again and fell back onto the bed.

"This must be what a hangover feels like." He muttered before groaning yet again and burying his face in his pillow. Oh _God_ was his head pounding!

"I am going to kill that bloody salad." He said, his voice muffled by the pillow. He lay like that for a few moments, before sighing. Maybe Beorhtwaru would know some way to get rid of this damned headache. Harry pushed himself off the bed and staggered into the bathroom, clutching his head.

"What have you done this time?" Beorhtwaru demanded, sounding slightly worried.

"I ate salad." Harry grimaced, clutching the edges of the wash basin beneath the mirror. Beorhtwaru clucked sympathetically.

"That cursed salad got you did it? Well, lucky for you I was around when the cure was found." Harry's head shot up so fast it made him dizzy. Moaning, he brought a hand up to his forehead.

"Hurts!" he whined, and Beorhtwaru sighed.

"You'll learn in time not to move quickly while under the influence of that demon-like salad. It is rather like moving quickly after you have been drinking all night."

"So this is what a hangover feels like." Harry muttered to himself, massaging his forehead. Beorhtwaru nodded.

"Quite. Now, as I was saying, to get rid of it all you have to do is wave your wand, or in your case, your hand, and say 'Absum turpis poena!' and it should go away.

"Absum turpis poena?" Harry repeated, and Beorhtwaru nodded. Harry sighed. "Well, here goes. Wish me luck."

"What for?" asked Beorhtwaru. Harry rolled his eyes.

"Never mind." He muttered, before waving his hand and saying the words Beorhtwaru had said. He started in surprise, then stared at Beorhtwaru who was looking smug.

"That... I mean... wow!" Harry exclaimed.

"Told you." Was all Beorhtwaru said.

"I shall never doubt thee again, fair maiden." Harry said, giving Beorhtwaru an extravagant bow. Beorhtwaru sniffed haughtily.

"Take care that you do not, young man." She said, and Harry smiled.

"I won't. Cross my heart. And now that I no longer feel like shit -" Beorhtwaru gasped loudly. "What?" asked Harry, frowning.

"Language!" Beorhtwaru exclaimed, and Harry gave her a strange look.

"What? I am I not allowed to say shit?" Beorhtwaru gasped again, and Harry got the feeling he was giving her a heart attack. "What? What's wrong with that?"

"No one of proper upbringing speaks such words!" Beorhtwaru gasped out, and Harry shook his head.

"You really have to modern up a bit. People now-a-days talk a lot worse than that."

"How do you know? You haven't been around them for years!" Beorhtwaru knew immediately she had said the wrong thing. Harry's eyes hardened and his face became blank.

"Harry..." Beorhtwaru started, and Harry's jaw clenched.

"I will speak to you later." He said frigidly, and turned and left the room. Harry turned and walked out of the room, fists clenched at his sides. What did she know? It wasn't like he wanted to be around them anyways! And besides, who cared what she thought?

Harry stormed to the training room, his face matching his walk. Once inside, Harry waved his hand and a punching bag appeared, hanging from the ceiling.

The first punch hurt his hand. So did the second one. The third one he imagined he was hitting Voldemort, and it didn't hurt. The fourth punch hit Dumbledore straight on the nose. The fifth sent Ron sprawling. Soon he lost count, only concentrating on hurting everyone who hurt him. Ginny. The punching bag went swinging. Hermione. The bag flew away from him again. Mr. Weasley. The bag came back towards Harry only to be pushed away again and again and again.

Finally, Harry sank to the floor exhausted and sobbing. Leaning back against the wall, he wrapped his arms around his legs and rested his forehead on his knees, shoulders shaking. He had almost forgotten. Almost forgotten why he could never sleep if he wasn't exhausted, almost forgotten about the gnawing pain in his stomach, the one that never went away no matter how much he ate, almost forgotten what they looked like. Almost.

"Come on, work you bloody spell! I'm sick of going to the bathroom on a stone circle!" Harry cast the spell again and growled in frustration when, yet again, it didn't work.

Beorhtwaru giggled, only to start whistling innocently when Harry shot her a death-glare. Rolling his eyes in annoyance, Harry turned back to the 'toilet'. He cast the spell again.

"OH FOR BLOODY CHRISTS' SAKE! CHANGE!" he roared. Then his eyes widened in surprise and he lowered his arms which he had unknowingly raised. He blinked. Beorhtwaru blinked. Harry blinked again. Beorhtwaru burst into hysterical giggles. The corners of Harry's mouth twitched. He shook himself and glared murderously at what had been the toilet. Then he stepped back in utter surprise. Beorhtwaru's giggling turned into veritable snorts of laughter.

"Oh, shut up." He muttered, lips twitching. Beorhtwaru snorted again.

"You... told... it to... change!" Beorhtwaru exclaimed between snorts.

"Well, yeah, but not into a purple snowman! And _definitely_ not a blue cartoon lamp with eyes!" Beorhtwaru's snorts turned into full fledged guffaws. "Though it is kind of cute, you know. I wonder if there're any laws against keeping a lamp as a pet." He added, trying to fight the grin that was putting up a valiant struggle to appear on his face. Then the lamp changed, making Harry's jaw drop and Beorhtwaru's laughter to come to a shocked stop.

"What on God's green earth is _that_?" Beorhtwaru demanded, wrinkling her nose. Harry shook his head dazedly.

"I have absolutely no idea." He said slowly, staring. The toilet was now, quite obviously, no longer a toilet. Nor was it a purple snowman or a blue cartoon lamp with eyes. In fact, it was now the strangest thing Harry had ever seen in his life, and he had seen some very strange things.

The creature was rather large, about the size of a golden retriever. It had big, sad looking orange eyes perched over top an elephant trunk-like nose. It had shaggy eyebrows covering half its eyes, giving it an almost sheepdog look. Its head was small, making its features comically oversized. It had four legs, two of which (the back right leg and the front left leg) were reminiscent of an antelope. Its other two legs looked like an experiment between a hippo and a tyrannosaurus rex had gone horribly wrong. Its body was long and thin, and was covered in shaggy white fur. It had a long, long tail that was covered with fur but looked like a snake because of the colouring and pattern.

The once-toilet looked around, before making a strange kind of trumpeting sound and charging at Harry. Harry yelled in shock and jumped backwards, knocking Beorhtwaru's mirror off the wall.

"OW! HARRY!"

"WHAT? AGH! GET OFF ME, YOU WEIRD... THING! HEY! STOP IT! WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?"

"HARRY! YOU'RE GOING TO BREAK MY MIRROR!"

"YEAH? WELL, THIS THING'S IS GOING TO BREAK ME!"

"SO? YOU'RE THE POWERFUL WIZARD HERE! GET RID OF IT!"

"HOW, OH ENLIGHTENED ONE?"

"My, my, my. The things you get into when I'm not around to chaperone you."

"EARNIE!" Harry and Beorhtwaru yelled at the same time.

"Yes?" the ghost asked unperturbedly. Harry rolled his eyes in exasperation as he tried to push the creature off of him.

"HELP!" Beorhtwaru screamed, and Earnulf lifted his eyebrows.

"Why?"

"WHY? BECAUSE THIS THING IS GOING TO KILL US!" one Earnulf's eyebrows rose higher than the other.

"Oh? How is he going to do that? And you can stop yelling, I can hear you perfectly fine." Harry paused in his struggling to look at Earnulf and realised that the creature wasn't moving.

"Thank the Lord." The creature said, making Harry jump. "It's about time. Hello, Earnulf old chap. How are you?" Earnulf smiled down at the creature.

"I am well. How are you, my friend?" the creature shrugged, a very strange thing to see.

"As well as can be expected, I suppose. It does get rather boring in the grey place, waiting for someone to call me." Earnulf nodded sagely.

"Yes, I can see how that would be." Harry slowly stood up, staring at Earnulf and the creature.

"Er... Earnie..." he started, and Earnulf looked to him.

"Yes, Harry?" he asked, and Harry nodded towards the creature.

"What is that?" the creature huffed indignantly.

"That? That! I will have you know, _sir_, that I am no '_that_'!" it said, glaring murderously at Harry. Harry gave it a decidedly nervous look.

"All right, _who_ is it?" the creature growled.

"I am right here! You may ask me!" Harry started nervously and took an involuntary step backwards, running into the wall.

"All right, all right! I'm sorry! Who are you?" asked Harry in an appeasing tone. The creature huffed again.

"That's better." It said, sitting down. "I," it started, "am Sir Anthony Anderson." It said grandly, and Harry blinked.

"Sir Anthony Anderson." He repeated blankly, and the creature nodded proudly. "Er... no offence meant, but... er, were you a... a person?" Harry asked carefully, and cringed when Sir Anthony Anderson glared at him.

"Who cares if he's a person or not? Get me back on my wall!" Harry started, only just

remembering Beorhtwaru.

"Twaru!" he exclaimed, stooping down and picking up the mirror. "Are you all right?" Beorhtwaru sniffed dignifiedly.

"It took you long enough to notice. But yes, I am fine." She sniffed again as Harry hung the mirror back on the wall.

"I'm sorry, Twaru. It's just that, well, you know." He said, nodding his head in the direction of Sir Anthony Anderson. Beorhtwaru sniffed one more time, but gave Harry an understanding wink. Harry grinned back, then turned back to Earnulf and the creature. But before he could speak, Sir Anthony Andrews started.

"To answer your question, Master of the Castle, yes, I am a person. Well, was a person."

"What happened?" Harry asked, intrigued in spite of himself. Sir Anthony Anderson sighed.

"'Tis a long story." he said, and Harry shrugged.

"Well, I have all the time in the world. Why don't we go somewhere more comfortable and you can tell me? If you want to, that is."

"No! Don't go somewhere else! I want to hear as well!" exclaimed Beorhtwaru. Harry turned to her.

"We can just bring you with us..."

"Absolutely not! I am not leaving my wall again!" Harry sighed and turned back around.

"Well, are you two all right here?" Earnulf and Sir Anthony Anderson nodded, and Harry shrugged.

"Right," he said, waving his hand. An easy chair appeared, and Harry dropped into it. "Well, if you want to tell us your story, go ahead." Sir Anthony Andrews nodded and lay down on the floor.

"Well," he started, then proceeded to tell Harry and Beorhtwaru what had happened to him.

End

Read and review!


	4. Chapter 4

'Eeloo 'dere! Oi'm back, wi' a bran' spankin' new chapter! Oi'm sooooo sorry 'tis so late! Oi didn't mean for it ter 'appen, but Ah've jist started online schoolin' an' 'tis really weord ter me, whose been 'omeschooled for 'er whole life. Please don't be really cheesed aff! An' please keep readin'!

**Dao-Musashi** – T'anks!

Aaaahh! Oi missed yer last review! Oi'm sorry! T'anks for it. Two in a row! Grins like an idiot 'Ill yer keep reviewin'? Oi promise ter not miss any more reviews! Cross me 'eart!

**Thesteffis** – T'anks for de review! Longest wan yet! Oi 'av ter say dat Oi wus bloody flattered whaen Oi got it. Ah've read yer stories, an' Oi loike dem pure much. It wus nice ter git a review from an author Oi loike.

An' 'Arry won't be forgivin' Ginny or anybody else anytime soon. Er, wait, let me rephrase dat. Yer man may forgive dem, jist ter gie 'imself peace av mind, but dat doesn't mean 'e'll forgive dem forgive dem. Does dat make sense?

Oi liked de salad too. Watch oyt for it in lay-ra chapters!

**CherryChick914** – Oooh! Two reviews in a row again! YAY! T'anks!

Isn't Sir Anthony deadly? Yer man actually kind av snuk up on me, Oi never planned for 'imself. Though as soon as Oi started writin' 'imself Oi figured oyt 'oy ter make 'imself important ter de scayle. )

An' now, on wi' de scayle!

Disclaimer – Don't own 'Arry Potter. Wish Oi did, though. Imagine gettin' al' dat nicker...

Ah yeah, Oirish accent courtesy av

Once and for All Time – Chapter 4

"Well," started Sir Anthony Anderson, "It all started when I was thirteen. I had never gone to Hogwarts, even though I had been accepted. My parents did not approve of the man who was headmaster at the time, and refused to let me attend."

"I can relate." Harry muttered, glaring at nothing in particular. Sir Anthony gave Harry a strange look before continuing.

"Now, normally a person does not learn how to become an animagus until their seventh year at Hogwarts and many times not until much later. But my parents, being the magical zealots they were, decided to teach me when I was thirteen. It was very dangerous for me, and several times I almost died. But, finally, I became an animagus. I was able to turn into a falcon." Sir Anthony said proudly, puffing himself up. Harry nodded, putting an impressed look on his face.

"The feeling of changing into an animal and being able to soar above the clouds was intoxicating. I spent more time as a falcon than I did as a human. Sometimes I wouldn't change back for days at a time.

"But I couldn't go as high as I wanted. I wanted to go where there was so little oxygen I couldn't breathe. So I started researching birds, trying to find one that could fly as high as I wanted to go. Eventually, I found the only one that could. A phoenix.

"Now, it was common knowledge at the time that a person could not have more than one

animagus form, much less a magical one. According to all the record books at the time, there had only been two wizards in the entire history of the magical world that could turn into a magical animal. Everyone said that the only reason those to men had been able to turn into magical animals was because they were incredibly powerful, and I, being the rash young man that I was, decided that everyone was wrong.

"I spent the greater part of my life researching and testing and so many things I can't even remember them. Then, on my fiftieth birthday, I finally found out how to become a phoenix.

"You see, it is all a mind set. If you truly believe you can turn into a phoenix, you can turn into a phoenix. But you have to _know_, with every fibre of your being, that you can do it. I knew. I knew beyond any possible shadow of a doubt that I could do it.

"So, finally, after years and years of research and dead ends and heartbreak and exhaustion, I finally turned into a phoenix." Sir Anthony paused, a look of rapture on his face. Harry, Earnulf and Beorhtwaru were silent, knowing that Sir Anthony wouldn't appreciate interruption.

Finally, he blinked then shook his head.

"Where was I?" he asked, then nodded. "Ah yes, I turned into a phoenix. I really cannot explain the feeling of joy and freedom I experienced. It became more addictive than when I was a falcon. In fact, several people who visited the castle, and didn't know about me, thought that a phoenix had made the castle its home, and spread the rumour. The castle became a bit of a tourist attraction then." Sir Anthony smiled in recollection.

"But then I got to thinking. If I could be a falcon and a phoenix, what was stopping me from being anything else? Nothing, was the answer I gave myself. So I spent the next few years researching other animals, and figuring out how to become one of them. Then, one day, I decided that I knew enough to try turning into something else. But my wife managed to convince me to have some dinner before trying it. Unfortunately, she had put a salad out, and that bloody curse had been activated." Harry winced, knowing what was coming next. Sir Anthony noticed Harry's wince and nodded sadly.

"I see you have had experience with the salad." Harry nodded, and Sir Anthony sighed sadly.

"Then you surely know what happened next. I attempted the transformation, but because of that salad affecting my mind, I couldn't concentrate on one single animal. So I ended up like this." Sir Anthony motioned to himself sadly.

"My wife and children spent years trying to find a way to reverse what had happened, but nothing worked. Eventually, the children could no longer stay. They had their own lives to live, and I could not keep them here. My wife continued to try to find a cure until the day she died." Sir Anthony's eyes seemed strangely bright, and Harry glanced away under the pretext of tying his slipper. Sir Anthony surreptitiously wiped his eyes with his trunk then continued his story.

"I stayed at the castle, in one of the deserted rooms at the top. For some reason, perhaps the mix of animals, or that salad, or because I could turn into a phoenix, I don't know, I didn't die. I didn't think I could die, but I didn't particularly want to find out.

"Then one day, many, many years after the incident, someone happened upon me. It was a young man who had come to buy the castle. He was the first person I had seen in years, and I, unfortunately, reacted a bit strangely. I terrified the poor boy so much that he placed an extremely powerful banishing charm on me. So powerful that it banished me to another realm of some kind. An extremely boring realm. It's all grey. Nothing else. Just grey. Very boring.

"Several times, though, some people who were living in the castle summoned me somehow. I've never been quite sure how, otherwise I would have tried to get back. Every time the person had been trying to reach, and I quote, a divine spirit. They would take one look at me and send me back right away. So this time I tried to take the person who summoned me by surprise and run away so they couldn't send me back. And that someone turned out to be you." Sir Anthony finished, nodding towards Harry. Harry nodded slowly, staring into space, his elbow on his knee and his chin resting on his fist.

"Did you ever try just undoing the animals one by one?" he asked, and Sir Anthony blinked, obviously not expecting the question.

"Pardon?" he said, and Harry looked down at him.

"Well, from what you said, the reason you ended up like this is, technically, because you tried to turn into a bunch of animals all at once. _Did_ you ever try to change back from one animal at a time?" Sir Anthony sighed.

"Yes, I did, at the beginning. I had thought I was going to be able to do it, but, as you see, it didn't work." Harry leant back in the chair, crossing his arms.

"Why didn't it work? Did something distract you? Or were you still under the influence of the demonic," here, Harry shot a glance to Earnulf who looked away. "salad?" Sir Anthony shook his head.

"No, the spell had been gone for quite a while."

"Are you certain?" Harry asked, leaning forward again with a strange gleam in his eyes. "Is it possible that it stayed around longer because you had attempted the animagus transformation?"

"I suppose… now see here, why are you asking all these questions?" Harry shrugged, sitting back again.

"I'm bored. It's been so long since I've had a real problem to solve. This one seems as good as any."

"You… are not going to send me back?" Sir Anthony asked carefully. Harry gave him a strange look.

"Why would I do that? It's not like I was trying to summon a divine spirit and ended up with a demonic one." The corners of Harry's mouth turned up slightly and his eyes twinkled. Sir Anthony noticed neither of these things, and he shot to his feet indignantly.

"Demonic? Demonic! How dare you, you cretin! If I could I would challenge you to a duel!" Harry's tiny smile turned into a full fledged grin, and he chuckled. Sir Anthony heard and stopped short.

"What… you dare to laugh at me?" Harry pressed his lips together and shook his head vigorously. Sir Anthony's eyes narrowed, and Harry's eyes widened and he clamped a hand over his mouth to keep from laughing outright.

"Hm. Tony, I do believe young Harry was teasing you. And you took the bait magnificently." Earnulf spoke for the first time since Sir Anthony had finished his story. Sir Anthony paused, glanced at Earnulf and then back to Harry, and sat down with a sigh.

"I always do." He said mournfully, and Harry burst into laughter. Sir Anthony glared at Harry, hmphed, then lay down, after rolling his eyes at Earnulf. Beorhtwaru, who saw the exchange between wizard-turned-creature and ghost, grinned.

"Harry, perhaps you should stop laughing. After all, Sir Anthony is now a guest in your castle, and it's not polite to laugh like that at guests." She said after a moment, and Harry made a visible effort to stop laughing.

"You're right, Twaru. I beg your pardon, Sir Anthony. But thank you. It has been a while since I've been able to laugh like that." Harry said, standing up. Sir Anthony stood up as well and nodded graciously to Harry, a movement that made Harry almost burst into laughter again.

"Your apology is accepted." Said Sir Anthony and Harry nodded back.

"Thank you very much. It would have made me quite upset if you continued to be upset with me." None of the three other occupants of the room picked up on Harry's heavily veiled sarcasm, and he smirked to himself.

"Well, what are you going to do now?" Beorhtwaru asked, and she and the other two looked at Harry expectantly.

"What?" he asked defensively. Beorhtwaru snickered, Earnulf shook his head fondly and Sir Anthony gave Harry a strange look.

"You are the master of the castle, are you not?" the once-man asked and Harry nodded. "Well, then, that means we have to do what you say." Harry frowned.

"You do? Ælfric never mentioned anything like that in his journals." Sir Anthony snorted.

"You have most likely not finished them. Those journals were Ælfric's life, and there's much more to them than there seems to be."

"You knew Ælfric?" Harry asked in surprise, and Sir Anthony snorted again.

"Knew him? Knew him! He was my great grandson, of course I 'knew' him!" Harry blinked, then brought a hand up to his temple. He needed a nap. And some aspirin or Tylenol or something.

"How about," Harry started, dropping his hand, "we have a bit of a rest? I for one am tired, though I can't speak for the rest of you. Though I would imagine that being summoned is kind of draining." Harry said this to Sir Anthony, who nodded in agreement.

"It is, actually. A rest sounds very good at the moment." Harry nodded and headed out of the lavatory.

"I'm sure you know your way around better than I do," said Harry, going to the door of his bedroom, "So you can just choose whichever room you would prefer and settle down." Sir Anthony nodded and waddled passed Harry.

"Thank you, Master Harry. Good day," Sir Anthony tipped his head politely and left the room. Harry watched him for a moment, almost entranced by the strange waddling walk Sir Anthony had.

Shaking his head, Harry turned around and stopped short, coming face-to-face with Earnulf. Earnulf gave Harry something that was suspiciously akin to a smirk, and bowed his head.

"I will be in my duelling room if you need me." He said, then swept through Harry and out of the room. Harry stood stock still for a moment, then a great shiver made its way up his back.

"Brrrrr." Harry muttered, rubbing his arms. "Bloody ghost." Harry climbed into his bed, still rubbing his arms. Burrowing down in to the warm comforter, Harry cursed Earnulf one more time before drifting to sleep.

Harry sighed tiredly, dropping into a chair in the Duel Room. Sir Anthony heaved an identical sigh and jumped onto the couch. Harry closed his eyes and leant his head back on the chair, letting his body relax.

"I had no idea this would be so hard." Harry said after a moment, and Sir Anthony huffed his agreement but didn't say anything. They were both silent again.

"We must be missing something!" Harry finally exploded, jumping to his feet. Sir Anthony jumped, startled. Seeing nothing was wrong he settled back down on the couch, his strange orange eyes watching as Harry paced in front of the giant fireplace.

"But what could we be missing?" Harry was saying. "You know more about the animagus transformation than anybody in the history of the wizarding world! I don't see why you didn't publish a book about it, by the way," Harry said, apparently going off on a tangent. "I mean, no offence, but you _are_ really old! You could have forgotten something, or over looked something. If you had written it all down, we would have a much better chance than we have now! What kind of person doesn't take notes at least?" Sir Anthony watched Harry, slightly amused. In the week Sir Anthony had been at the castle, he had already become strangely fond of the young man in front of him.

Harry continued to rant and pace, forgetting he was even talking to someone. Slowly, his rant became calmer until he seemed to be talking to himself, and his pacing turned into more of a thoughtful walk. Sir Anthony watched his with interest, wondering how this scene was going to end. It continued on for another fifteen minutes, ending when Harry came to the same conclusion for the sixth time and threw his hands up in aggravation.

"I give up!" he announced loudly. "I really give up. I need a break. I'm going outside. No I'm not. It's raining. I'll stay inside. I don't want to stay inside! I'm bored! This is driving me mad!" with a groan Harry dropped onto the chair, burying his face in his hands. Sir Anthony watched him for a moment, then jumped off the couch.

"You do need a rest. Why don't you go to the library and read that book you were telling me about? I will go talk to Earnulf; I have not seen him for a while." Harry looked up and watched tiredly as Sir Anthony waddled out of the room. Sighing, Harry stood up and stretched, rubbing a tired hand over his face. Reading sounded very nice. Nicer than a warm bath, even. Rolling his shoulders, Harry headed out of the Duel Room, bent on getting a snack and a drink from the kitchen and going to the library to do some leisurely reading. Unfortunately, as it was when he was younger, nothing was ever that easy for the

Boy-Who-Lived.

On reaching the kitchen, Harry had just opened the door of the fridge he had installed the day before when an alarm sounded off in his head. Harry stumbled at the sudden sound, wondering where it was coming from. When he realised, his eyes widened and his face paled. Someone had breached the wards! But how? He had put up the strongest ones he possibly could, and the ones that had already been up were no conjuring trick! All thoughts of snacks and reading gone from his mind Harry strode to the front door, calling to mind the image of the magic in and around the castle. Almost immediately he saw the magical signature of the person who had crossed the wards.

'_So it's a magical person,_' Harry mused to himself. It was a witch, to be exact, and either she was extremely powerful or had had a sudden fright. Her magic was pulsing wildly and was so bright it was starting to give Harry a headache. Shaking his head, the image of the magic disappeared from his head and Harry growled low in his throat. He didn't want to deal with this! But something was compelling him to go out, and he found that with the added help of his curiosity, he was unable to ignore it.

Harry had reached the front doors and put his hand on the door knob, waving his other hand to conjure a waterproof light to hang over his head. Bracing himself, Harry opened the door and stepped out into the pelting rain.

It took his eyes a moment to get used to the sudden change from light to dark. Even with his conjured light, there was still an almost shocking difference. Wrapping his arms around himself, Harry went down the stairs and headed across the clearing in front of the castle to the trees that surrounded the front half of said castle.

A few feet away from the trees, Harry stopped dead. Something was coming. He started to call the images of magic to his mind, but before he could finish a person came stumbling out from the trees. Harry tilted his head to the side, watching her, waiting for when she was going to see him.

It was the witch who had passed through the wards, and she did look as though she had been frightened. Harry came to the conclusion that she had been frightened, because her power levels had gone down slightly.

She was leaning on a tree with her eyes closed, her hands pressed flat against the trunk and her chest heaving. Harry was tempted to take a step forward, but decided it would be better if he stayed where he was. Who knew what she was doing here, and if she was even on the light side?

Finally the witch opened her eyes and glanced around. Her gaze landed on Harry, continued on, then snapped back to him so quickly it made Harry smirk. The witch made a noise that sounded something like 'urgk', jumped away from the tree and lifted her hands up so quickly Harry though they might have gotten whiplash.

"Ah… sorry… sorry," she said quickly, slowly taking a few steps backwards. Her tone clearly stated that she was a born and bred American. "Didn't mean to disturb, I'll just be on my way… see you later!" and with that, she whirled around and started running away.

"Hold it!" Harry shouted, taking a step towards her and unconsciously raising his hand. The witch froze then was slowly dragged back to Harry by an invisible force. The witch fought it for a second, then seemed to realise it was fruitless and went limp. Meanwhile, Harry was mentally kicking himself.

'_What the hell are you doing, Potter?_' he screamed silently. '_She could bloody be working for **them**!_' unfortunately, by the time this thought registered, the witch was already in front of Harry, lying in a heap at his feet. Harry stared at her, waiting for her to move. When she didn't move, Harry frowned and looked closer.

"Oh, Lord, please no…" Harry muttered to himself, crouching down. She wasn't breathing. Cautiously, Harry lifted a hand and poked her side. Nothing. No reaction. Harry was starting to panic now. Sure, he wanted nothing to do with other people, but he didn't want to kill them either! Harry quickly rolled her onto her back, trying to remember how to check for a pulse. You put your fingers somewhere on their neck, right? Harry bent over the witch, frowning. Where the bloody hell did he check for a pulse? Then, throwing all caution to the wind, Harry placed two fingers on the witch's neck, just below the back of her jaw. He barely had time to register that no, that wasn't where you checked for a pulse when the witch's hand snapped up, gripped Harry's arm like a vice, then pulled on his arm so that he fell over her. The next second, he was flipped onto his stomach, his face in the mud, with a rather heavy something on his back. Immediately, Harry started fighting back. Recalling his training with Earnulf, Harry reached back, grabbed the witch's arms and yanked her forward. She yelped as she tumbled down, grabbing onto Harry's shoulder to steady herself. Harry jerked his shoulder away, making the witch lose what little balance she had, and jumped to his feet before the witch could get her bearings back. He quickly pulled her to her feet, locking her arms in a full nelson.

"Now, what…" Harry started, then broke off with a cry of pain when the witch butted the back of her head into his nose. Harry dropped his arms and stepped back from the woman, bringing a hand up to cover his nose. The witch whipped around, her fist connecting with Harry's jaw with a rather loud crack. Harry grunted in surprise, then brought his hand up to stop the fist that was once again aimed at his face. Pulling on the witch's arm, Harry made her stumble forward and stepped around so that he was behind her. He wrapped his arms around her, pinning her own arms to the side. The witch fought for a moment, then went limp. Harry, not expecting the sudden weight, grunted and almost fell over, dropping the witch in the process. Then he was knocked to the ground as the witch hooked her leg behind his and swept his feet out from under him. She then pounced on him, wrapping her hands around his throat. Harry growled at her and punched her stomach. With a loud 'oof!', she let go of his throat and fell backwards. Lunging forward, Harry flipped the witch onto her stomach and twisted her arms behind her. She whimpered slightly, and Harry loosened his grip a tiny bit, not really wanting to hurt her. The witch yanked her hands out of his grip and kicked at Harry's back with both legs. Then, somehow, she twisted around so she was on her back, grabbed Harry's head, and all but threw it to the side. Harry, too surprised to do anything, fell to the side, the rest of his body following his head's lead. Then the witch leapt to her feet and dropped onto Harry, her elbow slamming into his gut. Through the pain, Harry vaguely remembered seeing the same move on a muggle wrestling show he had once seen.

'_Ignore the pain! Pain means nothing! You can whine about it after you've won!_' Earnulf's voice floated through Harry's pain filled mind. '_Ignore the pain, ignore the pain, ignore the pain_,' Harry started chanting silently. Repeating the mantra over and over, Harry did ignore the pain and grabbed the witch's hair. He yanked on it, making the witch scream, and pulled her off of him. The witch started hitting him, her arms flailing everywhere. Harry started hitting back, as much to stop the rain of hands as anything. It was then Harry realised that he was indeed being hit by a rain of hands. It was also then that Harry remembered magic. But before he could cast the stunning spell, the witch had leapt forward and clamped her mouth onto Harry's shoulder, biting down hard.

"**_OW_**!" Harry roared, shoving the witch off of him. "THAT BLOODY HURT!" without thinking, Harry waved his hand and the witch slumped to the ground, unconscious. Ignoring her, Harry looked down at his shoulder and tenderly touched where she had bitten him. Wincing, Harry dropped his hand and glared at the witch. Then, grumbling murderously, Harry climbed to his feet and started back to the castle, magically dragging the unconscious witch with him.


	5. Chapter 5

And I'm back! Without an accent this time, but oh well. Maybe next time. 

Oh yeah, there's a _leetle_ bit of swearing in this, a bit stronger than what I had, but no more than most people use every day. Well, except for me, who says dang and shite. (Unless I'm running and presenting at McDonald's by myself. Then you hear the real cursing. Even if it is muttered.)

You know what I just realised? It's been two weeks since I updated last. I'm such a hypocrite. I hate it when other authors take a long time to update, and here I am doing the exact same thing! I really must work on that…

_ Flowers of the Moon_ – I LOVE YOUR PENNAME! It's so pretty!

My story is great? Wo-ow! First time someone's said that! It makes me happy! Thank you!

Trouble? Harry? What story have you been reading? innocent look.

You're _patiently_ awaiting the next chapter? Don't think I've ever heard that one before…:-)

Yours was one of the nicest reviews I've received, and I thank you for that. Please keep reviewing!

_ CherryChick914_ – I'm glad you liked it! And I'm glad the fight scene wasn't boring, I was kind of scared it would be. I've read stories where the fight scenes are so boring they almost make me fall asleep. Glad mine wasn't like that!

I'm also glad you liked Sir Anthony's part. (You know, it's weird, but even in my mind I call him Sir Anthony. I can't call him anything else.) I'm so mean to him, aren't I? Maybe I'll let up a bit later on… maybe.

_ And_ I'm glad you're still reading and reviewing! Please keep it up!

_ Auntie T_ – Hee. I'm good, aren't I? Next thing you know, I'll have you hooked on Inu-Yasha. (It's on Monday to Thursday at nine thirty on YTV) grin

_ Alaranth-88_ – Another review from an author I like! This is great! Thanks for the review! I only have two more pages to go, so this should be up pretty soon… but I'm going to be away for the weekend. I'll try to get it up quickly though.

Disclaimer – Don't own Harry Potter. Wish I did though; imagine getting all that money…

Once and for All Time – Chapter 5

"Harry, you do know that there is a young woman lying, unconscious, in the middle of the entrance hall do you not?" Harry paused and looked at Sir Anthony by way of Beorhtwaru's mirror.

"_Yes_," he said coldly. Sir Anthony blinked at Harry. Beorhtwaru, taking care to not be seen by Harry, looked at Sir Anthony and rolled her eyes and shrugged. Sir Anthony shook his head in reply, then looked back at Harry.

Harry was looking at himself in the mirror, moving his jaw in strange ways.

"Jesus that hurt," he muttered, bringing his hand up to massage his jaw.

"What hurt, if I may ask?" Sir Anthony spoke up and Harry sent him a chilling glare through the mirror. "I see. Well, I will be in the entrance hall if you need me." Sir Anthony said, a trifle coldly, and turned and stalked out of the lavatory. Harry glared at the spot Sir Anthony had just vacated before turning back to his reflection. Sighing, he shook his head and waved his hand making the bruise along his jaw disappear. Then, slowly, he took his shirt off, wincing when the fabric dragged along his shoulder. Beorhtwaru gasped loudly.

"Harry! Those are teeth marks!"

"No! Really?" Harry said sarcastically and Beorhtwaru gave him an annoyed look. Harry ignored her, gently touching the large bloody cut on his shoulder. He sucked in a breath and immediately dropped his hand.

"Stupid bloody witch," he muttered, waving his hand. The blood disappeared and the wound closed, but strangely enough it didn't heal completely. Harry frowned, waving his hand again and willing the mark to go away. Nothing happened. Growling low in his throat, Harry jerked his shirt back on. Beorhtwaru gave him a worried look.

"Harry, are you quite all right?"

"**_NO_**!" Harry shouted. Beorhtwaru's eyes widened as Harry glared at her. Seeing this, Harry sighed and looked away.

"Sorry, Twaru, it's just that…" Harry trailed off and sighed again. "I'm sorry." He finished lamely and Beorhtwaru gave him a suspicious look.

"What's wrong, Harry?" she asked, her tone motherly and caring. Harry sighed again, glancing at her.

"It's just…. I… it's hard, you know? I mean, I know I talk to you and Earnie and Sir Anthony all right, but you're not… human. You used to be, I know, but it's not the same. And then that… girl comes… and I… can't…. I don't…. know… I…" Harry broke off, gripping the edges of the sink and taking deep, heaving breaths. Beorhtwaru watched him, her eyebrows knit together in pity. Harry took a last deep breath and looked up, catching Beorhtwaru's look. His face hardened.

"I don't want pity, and I sure as hell don't need it!" he exclaimed, whirling around and all but running out of the room.

In his bedroom, Harry let out a yell of fury and kicked the footboard of the bed. Then he dropped down into one of the chairs, cradling his head in his hands. Why did it have to be so hard to see another person? It wasn't at all hard to talk to Twaru or Earnie or Sir Anthony, but it was almost unbearably hard to talk to another living person. Sighing again, Harry leant his head back on the chair, eyes closed, trying not to break into tears. It just hurt so much!

Harry's lip curled into a sneer and he mentally berated himself.

'_Stop being so weak, you idiot! Stop remembering what it was like! That means nothing anymore! They mean nothing to you anymore!_' Harry surged to his feet with a growl, and kicked the chair, hard, unleashing his anger at his so-called friends. Then, as suddenly as it had come, his anger was gone and he was left with a kind of empty sadness that settled like a hunger pain in the pit of his stomach. He had gotten used to that pain, so used to it he often forgot it was there. But the sudden anger made him more aware of the pain, and the awareness of the pain made him angrier. Harry sighed and shook his head.

'_You are messed up, Potter. Really messed up._' he thought, walking out of his room with the vague desire to make some coffee.

Walking down the stairs, Harry watched his feet, trying not to think of anything. When he reached the main floor and stepped off the stairs, he turned and headed to the kitchen, glancing up briefly. Then he froze, blinked, and whirled around.

The witch who had breached his wards was sitting in the middle of the entrance hall, watching him with a carefully blank face. Harry stared at her, trying to form a coherent thought.

She was… well… there was no getting around it. She was beautiful. Not gorgeous in a super model kind of way, but definitely beautiful, even covered in mud and dripping with water as she was.

She had dark, straight brown hair that seemed to reach her waist. Most of her hair was up in a pony tail, so Harry couldn't be sure. She had a very nice figure, which was made so much more obvious by the way her wet clothes clung to her. Her face was heart shaped, with high cheek bones, a small, straight nose, and her lips gave the impression that a smile was just barely held back from blossoming over her face. But the things that really captivated Harry were her eyes. Her face might have been emotionless, but her eyes more than made up for it.

They were a dark, stormy grey rimmed in black. They shone with intelligence and, like her lips, they seemed to just barely able to hold back a smiling sparkle that seemed to be fighting to make itself seen. Harry got the feeling that, when she smiled, her eyes would light up like the sky after a storm.

Harry continued to stare at her. Was it his imagination, or was that sparkle in her eyes showing more? And was she starting to smile? Harry waited, almost with bated breath, to see if her smile would do what he thought it would do.

"Ahem." Harry blinked and shook his head, only just registering the presence of Sir Anthony. The once-man was sitting beside the witch, watching Harry with an amused look. Harry narrowed his eyes at him.

"I was not!" he exclaimed, then whirled and stalked to the kitchen. Sir Anthony blinked, slightly surprised and very much amused. Beside him, the witch smiled, and her eyes sparkled.

Harry stormed around the kitchen, gathering the ingredients for a ham sandwich.

'_I was NOT staring! **NOT**, do you hear me? Not at all. And it's not like there was anything to stare at anyway. She's not all that pretty._' Harry glared at the two slices of bread in front of him.

"I was not!" he insisted. The bread slices stared back at him, innocently saying he was.

"I WAS NOT!" he growled, shoving the bread in the garbage. Harry groaned, leaning his elbows on the counter. Wonderful. Bread was talking to him.

"I really don't need this," he muttered, burying his face in his hands.

"Ahem. Excuse me, Harry." Harry groaned silently and slowly raised his head.

"Yes, Sir Anthony?" he asked, glancing over his shoulder. Sir Anthony was standing in the entrance of the kitchen, an unreadable expression on his face.

"There is a slight problem." Sir Anthony said hesitatingly. Harry turned around to face Sir Anthony fully.

"Problem?" he prompted when Sir Anthony didn't speak. Sir Anthony nodded.

"Yes, a problem." Harry waited for Sir Anthony to explain and when he didn't, Harry rolled his eyes.

"What _kind_ of problem?" Harry asked, his annoyance getting the better of him. Sir Anthony sighed again.

"Miss Cadence, that is, the young woman you knocked unconscious-"

"I didn't _knock_ her unconscious," Harry interrupted, glaring at Sir Anthony, "I cast a stunning spell over her." Sir Anthony pursed his lips and Harry found himself holding back a snicker despite his mood.

"Yes, I know. A very strong stunner. Stronger than it needed to be." Sir Anthony gave Harry a reproving look and Harry shook his head, annoyed.

"Whatever." He muttered. Sir Anthony's eyes narrowed.

"It is not proper behaviour to hurt a lady," the once-man said, his tone dangerous. Harry glared back.

"She hurt me first! I had to fight back or else she would have _really_ hurt me. I mean, look at this! I can't even make it go away!" Harry pulled the collar of his shirt down to show Sir Anthony the bite mark. Sir Anthony blinked and a fleeting smile crossed his face, gone before Harry could see it.

"I see. No matter, it still does not solve our problem."

"And what exactly _is_ that problem?" asked Harry, barely holding his temper in check. "And would you stop sighing!" he exclaimed when Sir Anthony did just that. Sir Anthony gave Harry a look.

"I shall sigh as much as I like."

"Not if I tell you to stop." Harry threatened.

"If you would stop interrupting me, I could tell you what the problem is!" Sir Anthony exclaimed. Harry threw his arms up with a growl. Turning around, Harry grabbed on to the counter with his hands, willing himself to not strangle Sir Anthony. After a few deep breaths, Harry finally turned back to face Sir Anthony.

"Right. You tell me what the problem is, I won't interrupt. Deal?" Sir Anthony nodded.

"Aye. Now, the problem is that Miss Cadence cannot leave."

"**_WHAT_**?" Harry exploded, staring at Sir Anthony incredulously. Sir Anthony glared at him.

"No interruptions. Now, she can leave the immediate area, and can go outside, but she cannot get out of the clearing in front of the castle. I was thinking that perhaps if you were with her, she would be able to leave." Harry stared at Sir Anthony a moment, then heaved a sigh and dropped into one of the kitchen chairs.

"Just bloody wonderful." He muttered, covering his face with his hands. He sighed again, then looked up.

"All right. Fine. I'll do it."

"Excellent! Now, seeing as it is rather late, perhaps you should give the young lady a room? A good night's sleep would do all of us wonders, I think." Harry stared at Sir Anthony.

"Waitaminute! First you say that she can't leave when she's by herself, then you expect me to go with her so she _can_ leave, and now you want me to spend a night with _her_ in _my_ castle?" he asked disbelievingly. Sir Anthony nodded, almost primly.

"I do indeed. It is the gentlemanly thing to do." Harry clenched his teeth and turned away. Damn his bloody hero complex!

"_Fine_." Harry ground out, flexing his fingers. Sir Anthony nodded, satisfied.

"Very well. I'll show her to a room, shall I?"

"Right, whatever." Harry muttered, shaking his head at himself. Harry leant on the counter, gripping the edges tightly, his eyes closed. After a moment he pushed himself straight and turned around. Waving his hand, the different foods that had been on the counter, ready for someone to make a sandwich, popped back to their respective places.

Harry left the kitchen and walked to the staircase, only to stop suddenly and hide behind the banister.

"Where is this castle, by the way?" the witch, Cadence, was asking as Sir Anthony led her up the stairs. Harry watched her from his hiding place, eyes narrowed slightly. Sir Anthony clucked his tongue.

"I am afraid I cannot tell you without the permission if the master of the castle." The witch nodded thoughtfully.

"That's the guy I attacked?" Harry smirked slightly. At least she admitted she started it.

"Aye, it was." said Sir Anthony.

"Hmm. I'm surprised he's letting me stay. If it had been me, I would have kicked myself out into next month." Their voices were getting fainter and Harry strained to hear Sir Anthony's reply.

"Yes, well, the master is not as unfeeling as he would like to think he is. He is rather-" but what he was, Harry didn't find out as the two had finally moved out of earshot. Harry frowned, glaring at the floor.

"I do not think I'm unfeeling." He muttered, stepping out from where he had been hiding. He put his foot on the first step, then paused. He didn't really want to go upstairs. Harry glanced up the stairs once before turning around and heading to the Duel Room. Once there, he waved his hand and conjured a blanket and lay down on the couch. He sighed when he remembered what he had told Sir Anthony he would do the next day.

'_Could always disappear for a while,_' Harry thought, then sighed again. No, he couldn't do that. Sir Anthony would track him down, what with that trunk and Earnie helping. Which the ghost would no doubt do. Harry sighed again and closed his eyes, pulling the blanket up to his chin. There was no point in thinking about it. If he did, he would never get to sleep. And Sir Anthony wouldn't appreciate him being grouchy the next day, though he was bound to be grouchy anyways… Harry sighed one last time before drifting to sleep.

"Now, Harry, Miss Cadence would like to head northwards. So do please take her in that direction." Harry looked skyward, shaking his head slightly.

"_Yes_, Sir Anthony, I _shall_." He said through clenched teeth. Sir Anthony nodded, pleased, and turned back to the castle.

"It should not take you much longer than three hours, Harry. Can you last that long?" Harry clenched his teeth and fists simultaneously.

"_YES_," he hissed and Sir Anthony nodded once again.

"Good. Goodbye, Miss Cadence. It was nice meeting you." The American witch, who had been standing silently off to the side, smiled at Sir Anthony.

"It was nice to meet you as well, Sir Anthony. Thank you for your kindness." Harry's eyes narrowed at the seemingly innocent dig. The witch glanced at him, a tiny smile curling the corners of her lips. Harry looked away quickly, missing her grin at Sir Anthony.

"C'mon. Let's go." Harry said brusquely, walking away stiff-backed. The witch hoisted her backpack up and followed him with one last smile at Sir Anthony.

They walked in silence for almost an hour, before the witch sighed.

"Look, not to be rude or anything, but I can't take this anymore. I mean, I like silence as much as the next person, but not this kind of silence!" Harry paused for a moment, half-glancing over his shoulder at her.

"What silence?" he asked sarcastically and she twisted her mouth to the side in annoyance. Harry continued walking, not looking back to see if she was following. He could hear her footsteps.

Silence settled down on them again, but it was short lived.

"Welcome to Duloc, what a perfect town, here we have some rules, let us lay them down," the witch started singing, making Harry clench his teeth and narrow his eyes.

"Don't make waves, stay in line, and we'll get along fine, Duloc is a perfect place!"

"Stop. Singing!" Harry ground out. The witch paused and tilted her head to the side, an extremely amused look on her face. A look Harry completely missed.

"Can I whistle?" she asked and Harry ground his teeth together.

"_No_."

"Well, can I hum?" Harry opened his mouth to say no, then sighed. He had the feeling she wasn't going to stop unless he said yes.

"Fine." He sighed, shaking his head at himself. He didn't look back, and therefore missed the silent laughter that shook the witch's form. She forced herself to stop laughing and began humming, a huge grin on her face.

Ahead of her, Harry closed his eyes in resignation, resisting the urge to turn around and strangle her. How could _one person_ be so utterly _infuriating_?

Eventually, much to Harry's relief, the witch stopped humming and they once again walked in silence.

"Jesus, how much land do you own for Christ's sake?" Harry stopped abruptly, looking skyward and clenching his hands.

"Would you _please_ stop talking?" he asked in exasperation, whirling on her. She blinked at him, a startled look on her face. Harry glared at her then turned around and continued walking. He was sure she was going to start talking again, but she must have caught the underlying tone of pleading in his voice and, thankfully, didn't say anything.

Finally, Harry felt the end of his wards, also the end of the land belonging to the castle and to him. He stopped walking and turned towards the witch slightly.

"We're here." He said simply, and she blinked.

"Oh. Thank you." The witch nodded her head at Harry then stepped beside him. She frowned slightly.

"Are you sure I'll be able to get out?" she asked. Harry just looked at her, and she nodded.

"Ah. Right. Well, here goes my life." She said and Harry blinked. The witch put her hand out and slowly walked forward. When her hand came in contact with nothing, she sighed and smiled slightly. She dropped her hand and took another step forward. The moment she did, Harry cried out as the magic of the wards flared to life around and inside him. The witch cried out as well when she was surrounded with a brilliant white light, then thrown back as though being pulled back by an elastic. She hit a tree with a sickening crunch and slumped to the ground. Harry, in too much pain to move, finally, thankfully, passed out.

Harry woke with a groan, bringing a hand to his head. Oh Merlin his head hurt! Blinking dazedly, Harry sat up and immediately wished he hadn't when the pain in his head increased tenfold. He moaned and curled into a ball, willing the pain to go away.

A while later, he didn't know how long, the pain faded to a nagging ache in the bridge of his nose. Rubbing a hand over his face, Harry sat up and looked around. Why on Earth was he in a forest? Then everything came flooding back and he whipped his head around, looking for the witch.

She was still slumped against the tree, unconscious. Harry crawled over to her warily, remembering what happened last time she had been 'unconscious.' He reached out tentatively and shook her shoulder. She made a small noise, but other than that, nothing. Harry sighed. At least she was alive. Now what to do?

His magic obviously didn't work where the wards were concerned, as if it did, he wouldn't have this blasted headache. So there was probably nothing he could do for the American here. So it was back to the castle. Harry sighed again and moved to pick up the witch, intending to drape her over his shoulder. Then he froze, realising that it didn't matter which way she was over his shoulder, his face would still be uncomfortably close to her… er… well, he didn't want to carry her that way. And he found the fireman's carry very uncomfortable, so that left bridal style. Lovely.

With a groan, Harry lifted the witch into his arms and stood up, swaying slightly.

'_Whoa, steady there Potter, Sir Anthony will kill you if you drop her._' Harry told himself. As it was, Sir Anthony was probably going to kill him anyway, even though he hadn't had anything to do with what had happened. At least, he didn't think he had anything to do with what had happened. He could very well have been the _only_ reason it had happened. But he wanted her to leave, didn't he? So why would he make it so she couldn't leave? Harry groaned and shook his head. He didn't want to think about it. Sighing, Harry turned in the direction of the castle, briefly contemplating leaving the witch there and telling Sir Anthony that she had got out all right. His eyebrows drew together, and if he could have, he would have frowned at himself.

"_That_, Potter, was the _stupidest_ bloody idea you've had in your entire life." He said aloud as he started walking. That was when he ran into a problem. He wanted to get to the castle quickly so he wouldn't have to carry the witch any longer than he had to, so he had started off with fast steps. But then he remembered Sir Anthony and how he was probably going to kill him, so he slowed down. Then he remembered the witch and his pace quickened. Then Sir Anthony came to mind, and he slowed.

"Oh, for bloody Christ's sake! Choose a pace and bloody start walking!" Harry yelled at himself, and the witch moaned and shifted slightly. Harry stiffened and stopped walking completely. When he was certain the witch wasn't going to move again, he relaxed slightly.

"Right. Fast pace. To hell with Sir Anthony."


	6. Chapter 6

Hi all! I'm back! Hopefully this chapter won't take very long to write, but as I'm sick and have this massive headache like you wouldn't believe and can't see the computer screen properly, it may take a while.

There is one thing I would really appreciate some help on, though. There're supposed to be spacers in my story where one scene ends and another begins, but even though I put them in they don't show up when I upload a chapter, and I know from personal experience that it's annoying to read when that happens. If someone could tell me what to do, that'd be great! (I know that when you upload a chapter it says to press shiftenter to get a single line break, but for some reason it doesn't work for me.) (Though I think I may have figured something out, so if there're spacers in this chapter, there'll be no need to help. But if it doesn't show up, please do help me.)

**_CherryChick914_ **– Your reviews are always so nice! Thanks! I'm really glad you're enjoying my story so much.

I sure hope I'm portraying Harry properly. I'm not a very angst-y kind of person, so I was kind of worried it wouldn't turn out properly. In fact, the only reason I started this story was because I was in a bad mood. Go figure, eh?

**_Lucas13_** – How is she a Mary-Sue?

Harry was kind of out of it when he started heading back, that's why he didn't float her. He actually realises that in this chapter.

Anyways, I'm glad you like my story! And I'll try very hard not to make Cadence a Mary-Sue.

**_Alaranth-88_** – Again, what's with the Mary-Sue references? I'm pretty sure I won't make her a Mary-Sue though. I know in some of my earlier writing, when I first got into fan fiction, I had some miserably awful Mary-Sue's that completely embarrass me when I look back. I think I'm better now, though. Hopefully. Please let me know if she starts to become a Mary-Sue.

Wasn't the Shrek reference great? I had so much fun writing it. D

**_Maestro-XL_** – You don't have any idea, but I do! You love it? That's great! Hope you keep loving it. And review again please!

**_Ruby_** – History? What do you mean? Thanks for the review!

**_Ashibabi_** – I'm hurrying, I'm hurrying! Thank you for reviewing!

Once and for All Time – Chapter 6

Halfway back to the castle, Harry paused. Why the heck was he _carrying_ her? Wasn't he a wizard? Momentarily surprised at his utter stupidity, Harry rolled his eyes and shook his head simultaneously.

"I think those Dementors permanently scrambled your brains, Potter." He muttered, waving his hand as best he could while carrying the witch. A second later, she was lying as though on a stretcher and floating behind Harry as he walked.

Ten minutes later, Harry froze when the witch groaned.

"Ooooww…" she muttered, and Harry cringed slightly. He had hoped she would stay unconscious until they got back to the castle. He wouldn't have had to deal with her there. He turned around slowly and was just in time to see her open her eyes, glance around, realise she was floating, and scream like a banshee.

"LEMME DOWN LEMME DOWN _LEMMEDOWN_!" Harry winced. He hadn't realised anyone's voice could get to that pitch.

"FOR EVERYTHING THAT'S HOLY'S SAKE, LEMME DOWN!"

"All right! All right!" Harry exclaimed, waving his hand. There was a slight popping sound, then the witch ended up flat on the ground. Her eyes, which had previously been clenched shut, opened in surprise.

"Ground? Ground! Ground ground ground! Lovely ground!" she exclaimed, stroking the ground with her fingers. Harry gave her a strange look and took a step away. "Lovely gravity, too." The witch said, sitting up. "You know that gravity is what keeps us on Earth? And you know that if you get high enough up off the ground, gravity _will_ eventually pull you back to the ground with a really _really_ painful thump?" Harry continued to stare at her, and was completely surprised when her eyes narrowed and she glared daggers at him.

"What the hell were you doing? Did you even stop for a minute and think that maybe, _just maybe_, I didn't want to be floated around like that? Do you have any idea what it's like to wake up and be five feet _above_ ground? With nothing holding you up? You _do_ know that it hurts when you fall five feet, don't you?" Harry's eyes narrowed and he glared back.

"Well, excuse me for not leaving you out there for the rabid wolves!"

"Oh, do you keep rabid wolves? I wouldn't think there was a lot of money in that line of business, but hey. To each his own, right?" Harry blinked at the sudden change of subject. The witch stared at him then blinked as well.

"Sorry." She muttered, looking away. Harry raised an eyebrow. When the witch made no move to look back up at him or say anything, he shook his head.

"Look, I have to get back to the castle, and if you don't come with me Sir Anthony'll have my head on a platter. So, er… get up?" Harry mentally kicked himself.

"Oh, no thanks. I'd rather stay here, if you don't mind." The witch answered, still not looking at him.

"Excuse me? What part of 'my head on a platter' didn't you understand?" still the witch wouldn't look at him. Harry groaned silently and looked skyward.

"Look, either you get up and follow me willingly, or I'll just _float_ you behind me." Harry said, a distant part of his mind wondering why he was even wasting his time with her, but that thought was wiped from his mind when she suddenly surged to her feet.

"Kay. Which way? C'mon, hurry up, want to get back before nightfall, don't you? What are you waiting for?" she said quickly.Then she paused mid-stride and looked at him over her shoulder. "Coming?" she asked, raising her eyebrows. Harry gave her a wary look.

"Are you… quite sane?" he asked and the witch looked thoughtful for a moment.

"Yes, actually, I am. It just doesn't seem like it when I come to five feet above ground with nothing holding me up!" she glared at him again and he rolled his eyes.

"Whatever." He muttered. Shaking his head, Harry stepped in front of the witch and started walking.

"Coming?" he asked sarcastically and the witch gave him an annoyed look.

"No wonder you live alone." She muttered, glaring at him. Harry shot her a look over his shoulder. She looked away quickly.

"Sorry." She muttered again. Harry clenched his teeth and shook his head. Would she just _not_ talk?

"Hey… where's my bag?" the witch had stopped walking and was looking around, turning in small circles. Harry resisted the urge to hit himself on the forehead. He'd thought he'd forgotten something.

"Oh, well this is just great!" the witch said, crossing her arms over her chest. "You left my bag out there for the rabid wolves. I have some really important stuff in there you know!" the witch glared at him, then looked away. "Sorry." She said again.

"Would you stop doing that?" Harry exploded and the witch shot him a startled look.

"Doing what?"

"Glaring at me and then apologising!"

"So you don't want me to apologise for glaring at you?"

"That's not what I said, I meant… agh, never mind." Harry rolled his eyes and turned away, crossing his own arms. The witch sighed.

"Well, can I go get my bag? I think it's too much to ask that you come with me." Harry turned to her with a confused look.

"Why don't you just summon it?" to his surprise, she blushed.

"Er… well… there's kind of a special anti-summoning charm on it and… I'm the only one who can summon it."

"So summon it." Harry said, as though explaining to a child that two plus two equals four. The witch's blush deepened.

"Mwndskndfnthbg." She mumbled. Harry blinked.

"Sorry?"

"My wand is kind of in the bag." The witch whispered, staring at the ground.

"Your wand is in the bag that only you can summon." He said flatly. The witch nodded, refusing to meet his eyes. Harry stared at her, then groaned loudly.

"I'm going to kill whoever did this to me. Fine, come on. Let's go get your oh so important bag." The witch's eyes shot to him.

"You mean it? You're coming?" she said, relieved, then blushed when Harry raised an eyebrow at her. "Er… I don't… like…" she paused, mouth open to say something, then seemed to change her mind. "Forests." She finished lamely. Harry raised his eyebrow again and she glared at him.

"Would you stop doing that?"

"Doing what?" Harry asked as he started walking back in the direction of the end of his wards.

"Raising one eyebrow like that!" the witch answered, following him.

"Why would I stop?" Harry cursed himself. He just couldn't stop talking to her! And that pain in his stomach was getting worse. Was he some kind of a masochist? Did he _enjoy_ hurting himself?

"Because it's really annoying?" the witch asked hopefully. Harry snorted and rolled his eyes. The witch sighed, but was otherwise silent. Harry sent up a silent prayer to whatever or whoever kept her from talking and walked on in silence.

They reached the end of the wards in record time, according to the witch, and then proceeded to look for her bag. Harry couldn't figure out why he was still helping her. Damn his hero complex!

"Aha!" the witch let out a triumphant shout, proudly holding up her backpack. "Found it!" she said unnecessarily and Harry rolled his eyes.

"Good. Now let's get back to the castle before nightfall, all right?" he said, saying the first thing he had since they had started walking. The witch smiled and nodded at him, and Harry found himself forcing himself to look away and not stare. Her smile really did do what he had thought it would do.

As they started walking, Harry briefly considered asking if the witch wanted to try getting out of the wards again, but a reminder of the headache he had got flared behind his eyes and he immediately changed his mind.

After a while of walking in silence, Harry heard something rustling behind him. He paused and looked back to see the witch rummaging through her bag. She glanced up and paused.

"Sorry," she whispered sheepishly. Harry rolled his eyes and continued walking. He didn't notice the annoyed look the witch gave him, or notice her stick her tongue out at him. He did notice when she blew a raspberry, though. His head whipped around, but the witch was still innocently looking through her bag.

'_Too innocent,_' Harry thought suspiciously, before shaking his head. What was _wrong_ with him?

They finally made it back to the castle, five minutes after the witch finally stopped looking through her bag. Harry was positive she had kept going just because it obviously annoyed him.

Harry breathed a sigh of relief when he entered the castle. Finally, he could get away from her.

He had, about fifteen minutes after the witch started rummaging in her bag, decided that yes, he was a masochist, and he had to fix that problem. And the solution entailed spending absolutely no time at all with the witch, and spending all his time figuring out how to get _her_ out. And then, of course, acting on that knowledge.

"So… you want I should go find Sir Anthony Anderson and tell him it didn't work?" the witch asked, dropping her bag beside the front doors. Harry sighed silently.

"If you like." He answered and the witch nodded.

"Can do that, I can." She chirped, then was gone. Harry sighed again, this time in relief.

"Right," he said aloud after a moment, "Library." He climbed up the stairs quickly, casting a privacy charm around the library when he reached it. He searched the shelves for a few minutes, then sat down in one of the huge chairs with a pile of books he hoped would be able to help him figure out why the witch couldn't leave.

**)OAT(**

Harry groaned loudly, letting his head drop onto the table. Two weeks, _two weeks_, and absolutely nothing! With another groan, Harry lifted his head.

"To hell with this." He muttered, standing up and stretching.

Heading down the stairs with the vague idea of getting something to eat, it took Harry a moment to realise what he was seeing. When he did realise, he stopped dead, blinking. The staircase, including every stair and every part of the banister, _even_ the bottoms of the stairs above where he was standing, was _clean_. And not just clean, but _clean_ clean, as in the kind of clean number four Privet Drive had always been. The whole thing fairly _glowed_ with cleanliness.

Harry, standing halfway down (or halfway up) the staircase, stared around in complete shock. When the bloody hell had this happened?

He shook his head dazedly and slowly finished his descent, wondering just how long he had actually been in the library.

In the kitchen, where Harry had headed if only to be in a familiar place that wasn't gleaming like the entrance hall had been, Harry ran into, strangely enough, Earnulf.

"Earnie!" Harry exclaimed, surprised. The ghost turned to him with a smile and a bow.

"Harry, m'boy! How _are_ you doing?"

"All right. Earnie, what the heck happened to the entrance?" Earnulf blinked.

"Oh, has she finished it? I did not believe she could do it." Harry, completely in the dark, stared at Earnulf.

"She who? Do what? What's going on?"

"Miss Cadence, cleaning the entrance hall and Miss Cadence got bored sitting in her room all day, so she asked Tony and myself if we could come up with something she would be able to do. The idea we found was that she could clean the castle, since you were too busy to finish doing it yourself. Tony asked you if that was agreeable, and he said that you agreed to it, so that is what she has been doing. Cleaning." Harry frowned. Now that he thought about it, he did remember Sir Anthony asking him something of the kind…

"Is she getting paid for it?" Harry asked suddenly. Earnulf gave him a slightly surprised look.

"Why, yes indeed she is. I would not have thought you would care about that."

"Oh, I don't, not really. Just that when I was growing up, I had to clean everything and never got anything for it. I hated it."

"I see." Earnulf said, nodding. The two were silent for a moment.

"So… what are you doing?" Harry asked and the ghost jumped.

"Oh! Of course! I forgot! How utterly absentminded of me." Earnulf whirled around and grabbed a glass that had been sitting beside the sink and filled it with water. Harry had once asked Earnulf how he managed to hold things and Earnulf had simply answered 'practice.'

"This is quite an ingenious contraption, by the way." Earnulf said, motioning to the sink. "It is

truly amazing what muggles have been able to come up with in time."

"Oh, yeah. Ingenious." Harry replied. "What are you doing with that?" he motioned to the glass of water.

"I am taking it to Miss Cadence. I do not know what she is going to do with it."

"Drink it?" Harry suggested. Earnulf shook his head.

"No, she already has a drink. 'Mountain Dew,' she calls it."

"Oh."

"Now, if you will excuse me Harry, I must get this to her. And please, do come to my room soon. I miss our spars." Harry nodded.

"Right. I'll come by later today, if I can." Earnulf nodded to him, then swept out of the kitchen, thankfully not going through Harry.

Harry sighed and sat down at the table. It was very hard to deny that someone existed when they were living with you, and that was the trouble Harry was having with that witch. It didn't help that he couldn't forget why he was spending all his time in the library looking up anything and everything about wards. Harry sighed and buried his head in his arms. Friends ruined so many lives, he thought, trying not to think about his not-so-savoury past.

'_Damn them all_.' He thought, refusing to let himself cry over something that was over and done with.

"Oh! Shoot, sorry, I'm leaving now, don't worry, why the hell am I talking?" Harry looked up quickly, surprised. In the doorway, the witch froze, staring at him in a very unsettling way. In fact, if Harry didn't know better, he'd say she was drooling. He frowned and rolled his eyes, more to keep up appearances than anything, and stood up.

"Can I help you?" he asked irritably, keeping his back to her so she couldn't see his face.

"I… uh… that is, I was just… I mean…" there was silence for a second before: "God I'm an idiot." Harry turned slightly, amused at the muttered words.

"Uh… can I just… get a glass of water?" the witch asked. When Harry glanced over his shoulder at her, she was looking to the side, one of her hands tugging on her ponytail. Harry shrugged, turning back around.

"Didn't Earnulf bring you one already?"

"Um… yeah, yeah he did. It wasn't right though."

"Go ahead."

"What?" Harry shook his head in amusement.

"Go ahead and get a glass of water." He said, shooting an amused look at her over his shoulder.

"Oh. Right." The witch stepped towards the sink, a glass already in her hand, looking as though she was trying to fold in on herself. Harry opened the door of the fridge, as much to look for a snack as to have an excuse not to look at the witch.

After a few moments, Harry realised that the witch was muttering very quietly under her breath. Curious, Harry leant towards her, trying to hear what she was saying.

"Stupid jerk of a ghost… knew he'd be here… did that on purpose," Harry frowned slightly. What was she talking about?

"I swear to God I'm going to kill him!" the witch said, suddenly loud. Harry jumped, not expecting it, and stared at her. She froze, her back tight, then shot a quick look at Harry. Seeing him staring at her, she blushed furiously and quickly looked away. Harry noted in amusement that her neck was a bright red as well. He also noticed that her hands were holding the glass so tightly her knuckles were white. That only served to make him more amused.

"You're going to break that glass you know." He said, turning back to the fridge. For some reason, he was really enjoying this. Maybe it was because she was so nervous. The witch squeaked, _squeaked!_,¹ when he spoke and hastily put the glass down, making water spill over the top. She cursed, rather inventively, and looked around for something to wipe the water up with.

Smiling slightly, Harry took pity on her. For all that she drove him mad, she really was, for some weird reason, nervous.

"Don't worry about it. Just get your water and do whatever it was you wanted with it. I can clean that up." He said, closing the fridge door. The reaction from the witch was so funny he almost laughed aloud.

First she stared at him, then her face paled, then turned bright red, then she squeaked again, grabbed the glass and all but ran out of the kitchen. Harry watched her go, chuckling. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad having her around…

Still laughing, Harry conjured a towel and wiped the water up, shaking his head.

A minute later, just after Harry pulled an apple out of the fridge, Earnulf came floating back into the kitchen looking extremely pleased with himself. Harry said as much, and Earnulf actually grinned at him.

"And you look quite amused as well." Was Earnulf's reply. Harry frowned but didn't continue, knowing from the ghost's tone of voice that he wasn't going to get anything out of him as to why he was so please with himself.

"Here for another glass of water?" Harry asked instead. Earnulf shook his head.

"Nay, I have been banished. Miss Cadence refuses to see me." Earnulf even _sounded_ incredibly pleased with himself. Harry gave him a slightly wary look, then shrugged.

"Well, since you've now not got anything to do, how about that spar?" Earnulf clapped his hands together.

"Excellent idea! You must continue to build up your muscles, after all, we have a witch in the castle!" Harry froze.

"Excuse me?" Harry stared at Earnulf.

"Oh, nothing." Earnulf said in the same tone.

"You just said -"

"Do not worry about that. I believe Miss Cadence put a spell on me to make me say unintelligent things."

"But -"

"Do you want a spar or not?" rolling his eyes, Harry dropped the subject for the moment. But he

_was_ going to find out what Earnulf meant. Oh yes, he was definitely going to find out.

**)OAT(**

Harry dropped into one of the chairs in the library with a loud moan. Gods, he hurt all over! Earnulf had taken no pity on Harry and had completely ignored the fact that Harry hadn't done any exercising for two weeks. Harry sighed and leant forward, grabbing one of the books on wards he had been reading. Maybe some research would take his mind off the pain.

"Er… 'scuse me?..." Harry almost groaned aloud.

"What?" he snapped, not looking away from his book. He heard the witch shuffle her feet and rolled his eyes. "I'm not going to bite, you know." He said, putting the book down for a second, in time to see the witch raise her eyebrows.

"No, but you do have some god-awful mood swings. I don't know when it's safe to talk to you." Harry raised an eyebrow thoughtfully. He had never thought that his actions might be upsetting to others.

'_Well, then, **others** shouldn't have done what they did._' Harry said to himself dismissing the thought.

"Would you _please_ stop doing that? I mean, I know I don't have a right to ask you to do anything for me, after the way I just showed up and you let me stay, but that really, _really_ bugs me!"

"What does?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow again with an imperceptible smirk.

"That! Raising one eyebrow like that! Can't you just raise both, like a normal person?" Harry's eyes hardened.

"I don't know about you, but _I_ have never _been_ a 'normal person'." The witch looked down at her feet.

"Sorry." She whispered. Harry sighed and rolled his eyes. That was really annoying, for some reason, the way she kept apologising like that.

"Did you want something?" Harry asked, lifting the book back up.

"Er… well, first of all, I wanted to know if you've found a way for me to get out." Harry shook his head.

"I haven't."

"Oh. Uh, second of all, I was wondering if I would be allowed to use one of your empty rooms and turn it into a kind of dance studio thingermabobber."

"Go ahead." Harry replied, squashing his curiosity as to why she wanted a 'dance studio thingermabobber.' Then another thought occurred to him.

"Why are _you_ asking me? Couldn't you have just gotten Earnie or Sir Anthony to ask for you?" Harry wouldn't admit it, but he was rather upset that Earnulf and Sir Anthony sent her to ask herself. They knew he didn't want anything to do with her.

To Harry's surprise, the witch snorted derisively.

"The traitors said that they were busy and told me to ask you myself." She answered. Harry glanced at her over the top of the book and was surprised to see her glaring over her shoulder at the door.

"Traitors?" he asked curiously and the witch blushed faintly, glancing back at him.

"Oh, yeah, er, just um… nothing. Never mind, forget I said it. Thanks for letting me use a room." And with that, the witch whirled around and breezed out of the room, leaving a rather bemused Harry behind.

**)OAT(**

End!

I'm not so sure about the ending of this chapter, but I can't think of anything else at the moment.

1 – I don't think this is actually grammatically correct, but I think it got the point across so I'm leaving it in.

Read and Review! (The one thing I said I was never going to write at the end of a chapter. Hmm.)


	7. Chapter 7

I love getting reviews. And I've only gotten nice ones! #gets starry eyed# I'm so happy! Though you know what kind of irks me? (Yes, irks, yes, I use that word) I'm on the author alert watch of twenty-three people (_Twenty-three!_) but only five (_Five!_) of them have reviewed! I mean, I do the same thing so I can't really complain, but still. And there are people who review that don't have me on that thingy, so I suppose I really shouldn't be complaining. I did get seven reviews for the last chapter though, which is more than everbefore! Still a very little amount, but they're enough to make me happy!

**_Ashibabi_** – I ain't tellin' what's goin' on 'ere. So there. You'll just have to keep reading to find out. #grin# I'm glad you liked the last chapter! Hope this one's as good.

**_e_** – Er… okay?

**_Krista_** – It does, kinda, doesn't it? That's actually going to come into play later, but the story is by no means based on Beauty and the Beast.

There're beginning to be so many people who love my story! It's great! I'm glad you love it, I do too. #grin#

Oooohhh! Someone mentioned Ron and Hermione! Hehehehehe….

**_Dumbledore_** – Glad it's good! And there's gonna be more magic coming in soon. You can have so much fun with magic… hehehe…

**_CherryChick914_** – Can I call you a faithful reviewer yet? You've reviewed all of my chapters! (The ones that I got reviews for, at least) Thank you so much!

You have no idea how much fun I had writing Cadence when she was around Harry. And poor Harry, he's completely oblivious. I'm going to have a lot of fun with this. Hehehe.

Yes, Cadence is her first name. No, I haven't mentioned her last name before. The rest of her name will come out soon, maybe in this chapter. I'm not quite sure yet. I will have to see how this chapter goes, since I only have a very vague outline in my head. #blushes#

**_Dattatreya_** – Thank you for the review! I suppose Cadence might seem kinda perfect… personally, I don't see it. But then again, I also see absolutely no suspense whatsoever in my story (not even enough to wait for thenext chapter like some of my reviewers are hopefully doing) because I know everything that's going to happen. (The one thing I don't like about writing stories) So I 'know' Cadence pretty well, and I don't think she's perfect. She might end up so, but I don't really think she will.

I like my description of the castle too. I see everything when I'm writing, which is so much fun.

Did the first chapter seem rushed? Hmm. I wasn't _in_ a rush when I wrote it… hm… _strange_. (Yes, yes I am, please do not make too much of a big deal about it.) Ahem. Hehe. #blush#

**_lucas13_** – Written in Portuguese eh? Well, there _are_ some foreign language stories on fanfiction period net, so you never know… I, however, would not be able to read them even if you did put them up. So I'll give you a fair trade and say that I won't post my horribly embarrassing Mary-Sues if you don't post your horribly embarrassing Mary-Sues/Gary-Stus. Howzat?

_You know what I've just realised? I've been skiving out on my disclaimer! Oh, the horror, the horror. Anyways. **I DON'T OWN HARRY POTTER!** (Was that loud enough?)_

Once and for All Time – Chapter 7

Harry rubbed his forehead in annoyance. Ever since that witch had tried to leave his grounds, this stupid bloody headache had kept coming off and on. It always got worse when he was studying his books on wards, trying to figure out a way to get the witch off his property, so he was spending less and less time in the library and more and more time sitting around doing nothing. And the witch had been there for a month already! A month! And on top of that, the few times she was around Harry she acted like the weirdest thing in the world and Harry had no idea what to make of it. He had mentioned it to Sir Anthony and Earnulf, but they had just brushed it off as his imagination. Then, when he asked Beorhtwaru about it, _she_ had just smiled secretly and refused to tell Harry anything.

So, not only did Harry have a headache that wouldn't go away, he also had the puzzle of why the witch was so _weird_ and he still had the problem of Sir Anthony's animagus-transformation-gone-wrong, which he was still trying to figure out, and then there was Earnulf insisting on even more exercising and spars and fighting against dummies and duelling and Beorhtwaru kept giving him strange looks and giggling and saying nothing when Harry asked what was wrong and he was seriously considering moving back to Azkaban!

… Well, maybe he wouldn't go that far. But this was driving him mad!

"Scuse me?" Harry jumped violently and whirled around, ready to cast whatever it was to all seven hells and back. Standing in front of him was the witch, who looked extremely amused.

"Jesus! Don't _do_ that!" he exclaimed and the witch bit her lip.

"Sorry." She said, the corners of her lips twitching.

"And don't laugh!" the witch snorted and immediately brought a hand up to cover her mouth.

"I'm not laughing, I'm not laughing!" she exclaimed, her voice muffled by her hand and her eyes dancing. Harry glared at her and the effect was almost instantaneous. Her eyes widened, her hand dropped to her side and she started fiddling with her ever present ponytail. Harry curled his finger like claws and turned away. God, he honestly _wasn't_ that scary! Even if he would like to be, he wasn't. But she acted like he was going to eat her! He took a deep breath and held it for a count of ten, then slowly let it out.

"Did you want something?" he asked brusquely. The witch said something that sounded suspiciously like 'oh, only you,' and he whirled around so fast he almost fell over. The witch was staring at him, looking absolutely mortified. Harry heard a snicker from the door and he strode over to it, flinging it open to reveal Sir Anthony and Earnulf looking as though they had been caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

Harry looked from Sir Anthony and Earnulf to the witch, who was standing stalk still and blushing like she was on fire, then back to Sir Anthony and Earnulf, then back to the witch, and back once more to Sir Anthony and Earnulf. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Then,

"_What_ the bloody friggin' hell is _going_ _on_ here?" he exploded. The witch jumped, looking like someone was coming at her with a working chainsaw, and Sir Anthony and Earnulf backed away from him slightly.

"**_Well?_**" Harry demanded when none of them made a move to speak. Sir Anthony and Earnulf gave each other a quick glance, then Sir Anthony took a step forward.

"Well, Harry," Sir Anthony began, "You see, it is just that Miss Cadence really -" Sir Anthony's voice cut off. His mouth was still moving, but no sound was coming out.

"Don't, you, _dare_." Harry looked to the witch. She was standing ramrod straight, her wand pointed at Sir Anthony, and actually looked quite frightening. Harry blinked at her.

"If you even _think_" the witch said slowly, taking a menacing step towards Sir Anthony, "of telling him anything of the sort of thing you were going to tell him, I will make sure that your trunk is stuck somewhere where the sun don't shine! _Permanently_!" Sir Anthony gulped audibly and even Earnulf looked slightly frightened. Harry stared between the witch and Earnulf and Sir Anthony, then shook his head.

"I don't need this." He muttered. "Just… I don't know, go away. Just go away. Leave me alone." Still shaking his head, Harry left the room. He was within earshot long enough to hear Earnulf say,

"Now look what you've done!" and hear the witch reply,

"**_Me?_**" Harry sighed in resignation. The entire castle was going mad, and he had no idea why. In fact, he wasn't even sure if he wanted to know. Maybe they'd all eaten salad.

Deciding to forget about the castle's insane inhabitants, Harry headed to a place he had found only a week ago. A place that was as relaxing as it was beautiful, which was saying something.

_**)OAT)**_

Harry heard her coming before she spoke, so he didn't jump this time.

"Er… can I… uh… sit here?" Harry shrugged, not looking back. That constant pain in his stomach acted up a bit, but Harry stubbornly pushed it down, refusing to be depressed here.

The witch sat down beside him, over quite a ways and slightly behind, mind, but still beside him. Harry wasn't quite sure how he felt about that.

"I just… uh… wanted to… apologise." Harry looked over slightly, not letting his surprise show on his face. "I don't know what I'm apologising for… no, that's a lie, I know exactly what I'm apologising for. I'm driving you crazy, and I'm sorry." The corner of Harry's mouth that the witch couldn't see turned up slightly.

"Yes, you are driving me crazy." He replied. They were both silent for a moment. "And your apology is accepted." Harry said recklessly. He heard the witch sigh.

"Good." Neither of them said anything for a long while. Then the witch spoke, breaking the silence.

"This place is really beautiful."

"Yeah." Harry answered, looking out.

They were on one of the many roofs of the castle, looking out over the grounds where the lake resided. The sun was just starting to go down and its rays hit the lake, which reflected a vast array of colours onto the trees surrounding it.

"Would you like a chocolate?" the witch said suddenly. Harry blinked, then turned towards her.

"Pardon?" the witch looked slightly embarrassed, but she held her hand out anyways. Resting on her palm were some brightly wrapped something-or-others.

"Chocolate." She repeated. "I love chocolate and I always have some with me. You want one?" Harry stared at her and she shifted around slightly, a little nervously. Harry's eyes went to the chocolate. It didn't seem like it was poisoned. He mentally shrugged.

"All right." He said, reaching over and taking one. The witch looked utterly shocked and Harry grinned at her. This time it was she who stared at him, but then she broke into a smile. Harry looked at her a second longer then looked back over the lake.

"This is really good." He said, surprised, after he put the chocolate in his mouth.

"Isn't it? They're my favourite kind of chocolates. Moritz Icy Squares." She added unnecessarily. Harry nodded once to indicate that he'd heard her. Silence settled over them again but, strangely enough, it wasn't an uncomfortable silence.

When the sun finally set, Harry stood up and stretched.

"It's getting cold." Was all he said when he noticed the witch's quizzical look. She nodded and stood up as well. She stepped through the door that led back into the castle when Harry motioned her forward, and he followed her.

"You know," the witch said as Harry was closing the door, "We were never properly introduced." Harry paused, then turned to her.

"You're right." He replied. The witch blinked at him, then smiled.

"Well, then, I'm Cadence Taggart." She said, holding her hand out. Harry hesitated a moment, then took the proffered hand.

"Harry Potter." He said, shaking her hand once. Cadence smiled at him, then let go of his hand.

"Good night, Harry Potter." She nodded to him, then turned away.

"Night." Harry said after her. She paused, then smiled at him once more over her shoulder.

Harry waited until he could no longer hear her footsteps before heading to his own room.

_**(OAT(**_

"Harry, what do you think of Cadence?" Harry paused, then turned to Beorhtwaru.

"Sorry?" he said. Beorhtwaru sighed, smiling slightly.

"Cadence, Harry, Cadence! What do you think of her?"

"Er… well… I… uh don't… that is… I uh… have to… er… go, see ya!" with that, Harry dashed out of the room, heart pounding for some strange reason.

_What did he think of Taggart_? What the hell kind of a question was _that_? He didn't even know her that well! Just because he hadn't thrown her off the roof the other day didn't mean they were _friends_ or anything!

Shaking his head and trying to ignore the headache that was threatening to break loose Harry left his room and headed to Earnulf's room, deciding that a good spar would help clear his mind.

At the staircase, Harry paused. There were some weird sounds coming from one of the bedrooms, sounds that shouldn't have been there. Curiosity getting the better of him, Harry walked to the door and pushed it open.

The blast of sound that came out was almost enough to make him deaf and he took a step back, blinking dazedly.

When his ears finally adjusted to the sound and his eyes focused, he raised an eyebrow.

'_This must be the room Taggart chose for that dance thing._' He thought, leaning on the doorframe.

It was indeed the room she had chosen, and she had indeed turned it into a 'dance studio thingermabobber'.

There was a mirror all along the length of one wall, with one of those bars in front of it, the floor had been turned to hardwood, and there was a huge sound system on the back wall under the window, which was wide open and letting in sunlight and fresh air.

Music was blaring from the sound system, so loud that Harry was surprised the castle hadn't been shaken to pieces. It was very fast paced, and was violent in its absolute happiness. It was passionate. It was the embodiment of what a suddenly freed slave felt. It was the passion of a man and woman who loved each other more than life itself. Harry felt a strong surge of a violent emotion in his chest rise as if to greet the music, and he had to hold onto the doorframe to keep from falling to his knees. The music was freeing him, letting him fly, letting him forget.

Taggart was in front of the mirror, dancing, a look of pure bliss on her face. The muscles of her face were drawn tight, her eyes narrowed in concentration, her jaw clenched. But her eyes, oh, her eyes, they were lit with a happiness and passion Harry didn't think he had ever felt.

He stared at her like he was under a spell, watched her every move with a strange intimacy. He suddenly knew everything he needed to know about her and, had she looked to him, she would have known everything she needed about him.

Then she did a move Harry couldn't quite describe, fell to the floor and started cursing like a sailor. The spell was broken. Everything that had just a moment ago been as clear cut as a diamond was suddenly as muddled as before, everything Harry had found out about her and himself, forgotten.

Harry raised both eyebrows in surprise, watching bemusedly as she strode to the sound system, still cursing. She flicked a few switches and hit a few buttons and the sound level went down dramatically and another song started.

This one was not as fast as the first had been and was much, much simpler. Harry felt a slight surge of disappointment. Then the words started, and Harry raised a surprised eyebrow.

_He's so fine, wish he were mine, that handsome boy over there, the one with the wavy hair,_

Taggart, her eyes closed, started dancing to the music, mouthing the words. Her steps this time were much simpler, like the music. Harry watched, interested, awed even, but nothing that he had felt before came back to him.

_I don't know how I'm gonna do it, but I'm gonna make him mine, be the envy of all the girls, it's just a matter of time,_

The song went on and, as Taggart seemingly got into the music, Harry found himself enjoying watching her. When he realised that, he shook himself and stepped back from the door. What was he doing _enjoying_ her company? Well, all right, so it wasn't really company, but still! Harry reached forward and quickly closed the door. Then he turned around and walked stiffly up the stairs, not looking back once.

_**(OAT(**_

Harry woke groggily the day after watching Taggart dancing. Earnulf was a _monster_, a true, complete monster. He had kept Harry up until one in the morning, duelling the entire time. Towards the end, though, it was really just Harry dodging as well as he could and getting a great many painful bruises in the process.

Muttering incoherently, Harry stumbled out of bed, waving a hand to make the bruises go away. Magic really was wonderful for that kind of thing. Unfortunately, magic couldn't wake him up properly. He had yet to figure out why.

Forgetting about the secret door that led to the kitchen, Harry shuffled across his room, out the door and down the stairs. Coffee sounded really good at the moment. Really strong coffee. _Really_ strong coffee. Really, _really_ strong coffee.

'_All right Potter! Shut up!_' Harry growled in his mind as he reached the bottom of the stairs.

Eyes half-closed, Harry didn't see what he tripped over until it was too late. He fell face first, too tired and surprised to do anything, and ended up hitting the floor, very painfully, with his nose. Harry moaned, a bit of a dry sob creeping into his voice.

"Oo-ow." He whimpered, pushing himself up. He looked over his shoulder at what he had tripped over, and he stared at the thing like it had two heads.

It was Cadence Taggart, fast asleep in the middle of the hall.

Harry stared at her for a minute before he came to his senses. When he did, he sat up properly and stared at her some more. Slowly, he raised his hand and poked her side quickly. She mumbled something and rolled over, curling into a ball.

"Ah… Taggart?" Harry called softly. "Taggart?" Harry reached over and shook her shoulder. "Taggart, what the hell are you doing in the middle of the floor?" Harry asked, shaking her more insistently. This time, Taggart rolled over again, latching firmly onto Harry's leg. Harry stared at her, blushing furiously.

"God damn it Taggart, WAKE UP!" Harry yelled, futilely trying to pull her arms off his leg. She just mumbled something again and held on tighter.

"Taggart, I swear to God if you don't wake up now I'm going to float you out of this castle!" Harry said desperately. Taggart frowned, her grip loosening. Harry, seizing his opportunity, yanked his leg away from her. Her frown deepened and she moaned her dissatisfaction and tried to grab his leg again. Harry scrambled back so fast that when he hit the wall, he saw stars.

Taggart, not finding anything to hold onto, frowned again. Then she blinked, somehow managing to keep her eye closed in the process, and sat up slowly.

"Mhndame?" she mumbled, moving her head as though she was looking around, which was impossible as her eyes were still closed.

"Taggart?" Harry asked cautiously. Her head turned to face him.

"Mbrdnamh?" Harry frowned worriedly.

"Are you… er… okay?" he asked, and she nodded.

"Ohmandatlistanmh." Harry raised one eyebrow and stared at her, slightly frightened.

"What?" he questioned, completely confused. Taggart, still facing him, opened her eyes. It seemed to be quite a struggle, too. First, she couldn't even lift her eyelids, then they came open about a sixteenth before closing again. Then an eighth. Then a fourth.

This happened a few times before she got her eyes fully opened, and even then they only stayed open for about two seconds. Harry continued to stare at her.

"What the bloody hell is wrong with you?" Harry asked as she began the process all over again.

"Angotguisolatmn." She answered.

"_What_?" Harry asked helplessly. Taggart lifted a hand, holding up one finger. Getting the message, Harry sat back and watched her go through the process of opening her eyes three more times before they actually stayed open.

Even then she stared around blankly, as if she couldn't see anything.

"Taggart?" she turned to Harry's voice, blinking tiredly.

"Mmhm?" she mumbled, yawning widely.

"What's wrong with you?" Taggart mumbled another mishmash of sounds, out of which Harry only caught three fully formed words:

"Tired… didn't… sleep…"

"And that explains why you were asleep in the middle of my floor… how?" Taggart held a finger up again and yawned three times in a row.

She seemed to be more awake now, and shook her head dazedly.

"What the question?" she asked, her words slurring together. Harry sighed.

"Why were you asleep in the middle of the floor?"

"I was?" Taggart asked back, words still slurred.

"Yes, you were. You made me trip."

"Oh. Sorry."

"Why were you _there_?"

"Came for breakfast. Couldn't stay awake."

"So you fell asleep on the floor?"

"Mmhm."

"You have to be the maddest, weirdest, most insane person I have ever met."

"Couldn't help being tired." Taggart said as she yawned again.

"Whatever. Don't fall asleep in the middle of the floor again, please. It's not nice to trip over you."

"Why not use door?" said Taggart, her words slurring even more. Harry's eyes widened slightly.

"How do you know about that?" Taggart shrugged, her eyes fluttering closed for a second before she shook her head and they opened again. Harry wrinkled his nose at her. Then, deciding that looks weren't going to be any use when it seemed she didn't even see him, he stood up.

"Look, come with me, I'll make you some coffee, and you can go up to bed. How's that?" Taggart nodded sleepily, stumbling to her feet.

"Good." She mumbled, walking after Harry. He was just at the door to the kitchen when he heard a soft _thump_ and looked back. His shoulders sagged.

"Oh, you have _got_ to be kidding me," he said, turning around fully.

Cadence Taggart had fallen asleep again, on the floor again, but this time off to the side.

"At least she listened to me." He muttered to himself, shaking his head in annoyance. She was more trouble than she was worth, seriously. Sighing, Harry crouched down beside her.

"Taggart, c'mon Taggart, wake up. You want coffee? You won't get any unless you wake up," he said while shaking her shoulder. He got no response. He sighed again and stood up.

'_Hope she doesn't overreact to this…_' he thought, lifting a hand. He paused for a millisecond, then waved his hand.

A stream of ice cold water suddenly appeared out of nowhere, right over the witch. She shrieked, jumping to her feet, staring around wildly. Harry bit his lip to keep from grinning. He had always wanted to do that to someone.

Taggart wrapped her arms around herself, shivering slightly.

"Wha?" she mumbled, blinking. Then her eyes landed on Harry and they narrowed into slits. Harry suddenly found himself quite frightened. She really did look evil. Honestly, she did!

"Dead." She hissed, taking a step towards him and Harry, forgetting that he was master of the castle and could send her to a dungeon with a wave of his hand if he wanted, stepped backwards.

"Er… sorry?" Taggart's glare intensified. She pulled her wand out of the pair of jeans she was wearing and pointed it at Harry. The corners of her mouth turned up into a maniacal smile as Harry continued to back away.

"DIE, EVIL WATER POURER, DIE!" she screamed suddenly, practically giving him a heart attack. He jumped backwards through the door of the kitchen, eyes wide. Taggart glared at him for another minute before the corners of her lips twitched and she burst into peals of laughter.

"Your… face!" she cried, sliding to the floor, her arms wrapped around her stomach. Harry stared at her, heart pounding. Then he narrowed his eyes, turned on his heel and stalked away, completely forgetting his curiosityabout why she had had so much trouble waking up, and leaving her laughing even harder.

_**(OAT)**_

There. All done. Tell me what you think!

(Hmm. Cadence has moved up from 'witch' to 'Taggart'. Hmmm.)


	8. Chapter 8

#peeks cautiously around corner# I'm sorry this is so late! Really! It's just that I got this other idea for a story and it wouldn't go away and I had to write it down so it would, (_Four_ chapters in _two_ days! I've never done that before.) and then there was work and then I got behind in school and had to catch up and… yeah. That's why this took so long. But now, here is the (hopefully) long awaited chapter!

Broke thirty reviews! WHOO! I'm so happy!

Oh, and I just wanted to say that I'm not a dancer, never have been a dancer, would like to be a dancer, and have absolutely no idea how to write dancing. So please bear with me. I will try not to get anything incredibly wrong, and if I do, it would be great if someone could help me with it. Also, _I don't own Harry Potter or anything related to Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling, or Warner Bros._

**_Arye_** – Ooh! Ooh! An author I like! An author I like! I like your story so much! I'm very glad you reviewed! #big grin#

I had so much fun writing the part where Cadence fell asleep in the hallway, you have no idea. Hehe.

Hmm… Hedwig… hmm… (You know, I seem to be 'hmm'ing a lot. I wonder if it's bad for my health?) I actually hadn't thought of Hedwig, but now that you've brought her up… hmmmm… #grin#

**_CherryChick914_** – Yeah, I really got into the descriptions last chapter. It's because I feel more strongly about some things, I think.

Know what? Chapter 7 is my favourite too, next to the first chapter. It's because I had so much fun writing this chapter. I'm glad you like it as much as I do. ) and I shall try to update soon.

**_DragonFoxx_** – Thank you! And I shall.

**_gallandro-83_** – Curious little bugger, aren't you? #laughs# Okay, let's see.

1. – I'm waiting until Harry gets to know her a bit better before telling what she was running from. Since this story is from Harry's point of view, and he hasn't talked to her very much yet, he doesn't know. Therefore, you don't know either.

2. – She has heard of Harry Potter. She wants to get to know him better before she says anything, though. You'll see just how well she knows him later on.

3. – Harry will eventually be curious as to where the castle is. Remember, he just kind of disappeared and showed up at the castle, so he doesn't know where it is. It'll be coming up soon. (And Ælfric probably put the location in the journals, but names of places change, and I don't think Harry knows many historical names.)

4. – Ooh, that's close. That's very close. But not _quite_ the real reason he gets a headache from researching wards and such. Close though.

5. – You will find out what happened to everyone else. Pretty soon, I think. I'm not quite sure though, it depends on how my chapters go.

6. – …I actually, honest to goodness, hadn't thought of that. Thanks for bringing it up! I'll put it in as soon as I can.

**_ashibabi_** – Actually, (so far) he defeated Voldemort five times, including mine. (Sorry. Just had to point that out, being the complete and total Potterhead I am.)

Come on! Give poor Harry a break. After all, for all he knows, she could be an insane axe murderer. She isn't, but he doesn't know that. And there's the shock factor too. After all, wouldn't you be scared if someone went from glaring at you to yelling at you just like that? #snaps fingers# You would jump at least, right? (At least, I would. I can't speak for you though.)

Millions? Don't I wish. **OAT**. **O**_nce and for _**A**_ll_ **T**_ime_. **OAT**. : )

**_mscs3_** – Thanks for the review! Hope you like this chapter.

**_Khadon_** – Wow. Thank you so much! Yours is one of the most flattering reviews I've gotten. Thank you again!

**_MistRose_** – Aaaw! Thank you _soooooo_ much! That was such a wonderful review! Makes me all happy inside! Huggles to you! And you made me feel good about the amount of reviews I get (which is growing steadily, to my delight), so thank you for that too! And if you don't review again, I hope you enjoy the story and that it lives up to your expectations.

P.S. Got you hooked _and_ got you to review? Oooh, I am good. #snicker#

**_Alaranth-88_** – You like Cadence? YAY! Thanks for the review. )

Once and for All Time – Chapter 8

Harry glowered into the lake, face like thunder. That Taggart!

'_What right did she have to do that_?' he groused. He picked up a small rock and flung it into the lake with a growl.

His present mood had nothing to do with the fact that Taggart had embarrassed him. Oh no. Not at all. Not one little bit.

He heard someone walking through the grass and his glower deepened. It was her, he knew, and he didn't want to deal with her at the moment.

She stopped a few feet behind him, waiting silently for him to acknowledge her. When he didn't, she sighed.

"Can I sit here?"

"No." Harry snapped, not turning around and missing the completely annoyed look on Taggart's face and the way her fingers twitched as if she wanted to throttle him.

"Fine, be that way." Harry heard her turn and stomp away a few steps. Then she stopped, obviously waiting for him to say something. He smirked. She groaned softly.

"You have to admit you deserved it, waking me up like that. You could have shaken me or something." Harry's glower returned.

"Tried that. It didn't work."

"Oh." She was silent again and Harry flung another rock into the lake.

"And here I thought that time of the month was for women to have mood swings." Harry froze.

"_Excuse_ me?" he asked, slowly turning around. Taggart wasn't looking at him, but he could still see the amused look on her face.

"Nothing." She replied. Harry glared at her, then snorted and looked back to the lake. Taggart groaned loudly.

"Would you stop being so damned _moody_?"

"Why?" he asked mulishly. She made a strange noise, like she was choking down a scream.

"_Because_," she said, her tone betraying that fact that she was having a hard time being civil, "It's incredibly hard to crush on someone as moody as you, you moody dumb ass!" Harry blinked, then turned around and looked at her. She was staring back at him, eyes wide and her face completely red.

"I've said too much." She said finally and turned away stiffly. Harry suddenly felt a bubble of hilarity well up inside him and he snorted, turning back to the lake. He heard her freeze and then whirl around.

"You think it's _funny_?" she exclaimed incredulously. "Well, let me tell _you_, mister, it's _not_!" Harry rested his mouth on his fist, shoulders shaking. "You… stop _laughing_! It's _not funny_!" Harry buried his face in his hands, muffling the small spurts of laughter that escaped him. A moment later, Taggart punched his shoulder, hard.

"Ow!" Harry cried, still laughing.

"Shut up!" Taggart said angrily, though the corners of her mouth were twitching. "No! Stop laughing! I don't want to laugh! _Stop it_!" She hit him again, this time a half-hearted swat to the back of his head. Then she sat down, giggling, her arms crossed and a completely indignant look on her face. Harry laughed harder.

"Are you quite finished?" Taggart asked in a decidedly British accent when he stopped laughing. He gave her a strange look, but nodded. Then he sighed and stretched out on his back, leaning on his elbows and looked out over the lake.

"How is it," he said after a moment of silence, "That you can make me go from tired to wide awake to extremely curious to mischievous to terrified to angry to laughing?" he asked, almost of himself. Cade-, Taggart, shrugged.

"What can I say? I'm talented." Harry smirked. He wasn't really sure why he was so relaxed around her all of a sudden, but he thought it had something to do with the fact that he hadn't laughed like that with another person in over seven years. What with Voldemort being around in his last years at Hog-

'_Stop it!_' Harry blinked and shook his head. It wasn't a good idea to think of _that place_.

"So, you fancy me?" he asked suddenly, wondering why he wasn't embarrassed. Maybe Azkaban did some good after a- stop it! Harry blinked again and gave Taggart a sideways glance and was amused to see she was blushing furiously again. She noticed him looking and turned her head away haughtily.

"I did, but not any more, ya dumb ass." The corner of Harry's mouth turned up slightly.

"Are you sure you should be insulting me like that? I am the master of the castle after all, I could throw you out."

"Ah, but that's where you're wrong," Taggart said, still blushing faintly. "You can't throw me out. Your stupid wards won't let you."

"Yes, but you see, they won't let me throw you off the _grounds_. But nothing's stopping me from throwing you out of the castle, or into the dungeons." Harry glanced at Taggart, whose mouth was open to deliver another argument in her favour. She paused, closed her mouth, then nodded thoughtfully.

"True, you could do that." she admitted. Harry smirked in victory. "So I take away my **dumb ass** comment. You are not a **dumb ass**. How anyone could think you are a **dumb ass** is beyond me. _I_ certainly don't think you're a **dumb ass**." Every time she said 'dumb ass', Cade-, Taggart gave Harry a very pointed look. Harry barked a laugh and looked back out over the lake.

"You got me there." He said, smirking. Taggart smirked back in a condescending way.

"Of course." She said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Then, after a moment of silence, she said, "I didn't know you have dungeons." Harry shrugged.

"I actually don't even know if I can get down there. I mean, I know it's there from what Ælfric wrote in his journals, but I've never personally been down there." Taggart shuddered.

"I don't blame you." She said, shuddering again. Harry raised an eyebrow at her.

"What? You don't like dungeons?"

"It's not that, exactly. I hate rats, and every experience I've had with dungeons had rats along with it." Harry gave the witch a surprised look.

"You've had experiences with dungeons?" he asked blankly. Taggart glanced at him, smiling slightly.

"Yeah, but not the way you're thinking. It was field trips to medieval castles and such, and we always had to go down in the dungeons, and there were always rats. _Always_." She added, shuddering again. Harry smirked at her, an idea growing in his mind.

"You wanna explore the dungeon with me?" he asked, slightly teasingly.

"NO!" Taggart exclaimed, staring at him with a horrified look. Harry immediately gave her puppy dog eyes, ones he had learnt from Gin-… someone. Almost immediately Harry could see Taggart's resolve start crumbling. She looked away quickly, shielding her eyes.

"NO! I won't do it! You can't make me!"

'_Wanna bet_?' Harry asked silently, scooting closer to her.

"_Pwease_?" he asked, puppy-eyes at full power. A thought rose in a distant corner of Harry's brain, bringing up the question of why he was being so forward. But, as it was in a very distant part, it was soon squashed and forgotten. Especially since Harry was having a grand time being so… carefree. Yes, that was the word. Carefree. And it was very refreshing.

Taggart glanced at him warily, then her shoulder sagged and the corners of her mouth dropped into a pout.

"Fine."

**OATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOAT**

"_Whazzat_?" Harry rolled his eyes, almost wishing he hadn't convinced the witch to come with him.

Almost.

"Your imagination." Harry answered, smirking over his shoulder at Taggart. Taggart, standing as though she wanted to fold in on herself with her wand clutched tightly in one hand and a baseball bat (Harry kept calling it a cricket bat, just to annoy her) she had insisted on bringing clutched in her other hand, glared murderously at him.

"This is all your fault." She hissed. "You and your bloody friggin' eyes. I swear, I'm going to wear sunglasses that block out your eyes from now on. Or claw yours out. ACK! Whazzat?"

"Me. Come on." Harry answered, grabbing her arm and yanking her forward.

"That was not you! You're in front of me, not behi-" she suddenly let out an ear piercing shriek and jumped at him, clutching his arm in a death grip.

"RAT! RAT! GET IT AWAY, GET IT AWAY!" she yelped, burying her face in Harry's shoulder and swinging the baseball bat behind her as though to bat someone away. Harry bit his lip and closed his eyes. She'd probably hit him with that bat if he laughed.

"You're not going to scare anything away waving that cricket bat like a lunatic."

"Lunatics can be very scary. And it's a _baseball_ bat." Taggart said into his shoulder. Harry grinned slightly.

"Yeah, well. The rat's gone now. You can look."

"You sure? 'Cause if you fibbing, I kill you."

"You really are scared. Your grammar's slipping."

"Isn't. I'm being 'mobbish'."

"Sorry?" Taggart stepped away from him shaking her head. Harry still caught sight of her blush in his conjured light, even though she wouldn't look at him.

"Never mind." She said, stepping around him. "You're the one that wanted to 'explore' down here, so let's get going. Though _I_ say you're an insane sadist and came down here just to make me scared." Harry grinned and started walking.

"Or I could have just wanted company and someone to help me in case the whole place fell down around my ears. But you're right. I'm an insane sadist who came down here just to make you scared."

"Knew it." Taggart muttered, before whirling around, wand held high. The beam of light that came from the tip of her wand traveled a small portion of the stone hallway. She shivered and lifted her wand higher, trying to make the light go further.

"Wish there was more light." She said to Harry over her shoulder.

"All right." Harry answered, and waved his hand. Along the entire length of the hallway, torches flared into life.

Taggart froze, then very, very slowly, turned to look at Harry.

"You can do that?" she asked incredulously. Harry nodded.

"Of course." He said, as if stating the most obvious thing in the world. "I am the master of the castle. How many times do I have to tell you?" he gave her an amused look that completely betrayed his innocent tone and started walking again. "Oh, and if you try to hit me with that cricket bat I'll feed you to the rabid wolves."

"_Baseball bat_!" Taggart yelled. Harry glanced back slightly and grinned as Taggart lowered the bat from its position above her head. "I really oughta hit you for that." she muttered, jogging to catch up with him.

"For what?" Harry asked innocently.

"For not putting on the lights, that's what!" Taggart replied loudly, glaring at him. Harry smirked.

"You didn't ask. If you had, I would have." Taggart stared at him, then growled threateningly and lifted the bat slightly. Harry ignored her except to say,

"Don't growl like that. Someone might mistake you for a rabid wolf." Taggart stopped walking and watched Harry as he passed her, her mouth open slightly and an annoyed and slightly incredulous look on her face.

"Stupid bloody annoying creep. I don't know why I like you." She muttered after a moment, following him with a glower. Harry smirked.

They had only been down in the dungeons for half an hour, at the most. Harry had been wondering what they actually looked like, since Taggart's wand and his conjured light only gave off so much light, but Taggart's reactions and been well worth the wait. Now, though, Harry could see that whoever had designed the dungeons clearly hadn't been made for the job. They actually looked… comfy. The individual cells were big and roomy, and made for only one person. Harry shook his head in something akin to awe.

Ælfric had written that the first two floors of the dungeons (of which there were, apparently, ten floors) were for people who had committed only minor crimes. Or who had a great deal of money.

'_Kind of like the Bastille,_' Harry remembered thinking at the time.

The lower floors got more and more unaccommodating and a person was put on a certain floor according to the crimes. At least, that was what was supposed to happen.

Each of the first floor dungeons, though, had a bed in the corner of the room, (not very big ones, but comfy looking ones nonetheless) a washbasin, a towel rack and even a bathtub. And there were brightly coloured rugs on the stone floor.

"Are you sure these are the dungeons?" Taggart asked, looking around curiously. "'Cause if they are, I really wouldn't mind being thrown in them. Dumb ass."

"Then I guess I'd just have to throw you outside." Harry replied absently, looking into one of the cells and shaking his head. "It's starting to get cold out and I could make sure you couldn't have a fire or anything."

"Evil you are." Taggart said, just as absently. "You could always use them for guest rooms, they're that nice. And just think; if any of the guests really got on your nerves, you could just lock 'em in." Harry turned slowly and gave Taggart a significant look. She blinked at him. Then she gave him doe eyes and clasped her hands together.

"Can I stay witchoo?" She asked, and Harry gave her a strange look.

"What?"

"Can I stay witchoo… _please_?" Harry wrinkled his nose at her, then rolled his eyes and continued looking around. Taggart giggled. Harry glanced at her and she quickly looked into one of the dungeons, smiling. After a few moments of silence, she spoke.

"Bet you would've liked these in Azkaban." She said inattentively. Harry stiffened. Taggart froze, then her hands flew up to cover her mouth.

"Oh God, I didn't mean it like that! I'm so sorry! I didn't think and –"

"Don't worry about it." Harry said gruffly. "It's fine." Only it wasn't. The witch's offhand comment had brought a great deal of bad memories to surface. Memories that Harry was having a hard time pushing down again. But… if he ever wanted to move passed them… to forget them… he would have to deal with them. Right. They were in the past, and that's where they were going to stay. Harry closed his eyes, took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He straightened from where he had been leaning on the door of one of the cells and turned around to look at Taggart. His eyebrows rose of their own accord.

She was looking absolutely furious with herself and was repeatedly hitting herself with the baseball bat.

"Oi! Stop it! You'll give yourself a concussion!" Harry exclaimed, grabbing her shoulder and yanking the bat out of her hands.

"Yeah, well, I'd deserve it. Me and my stupid big mouth. I mean,_ first_ I go and tell you, literally _tell you_, not even just _hints_, that I like you, even if it _was_ **_reeaally_** obvious, and then I go and tell you I hate rats so now I'm probably going to end up with rats in my bed, and _then_, as if that wasn't enough, I go and say _that_! I mean, I _know_ what a horrible place that is, and I _know_ what people there went through, and then I go and say, 'Oh, gee, I bet you would have liked to be comfortable'! _Christ_ I'm a _moron_!" Harry had become increasingly amused during her tirade and was now biting his lip to keep from laughing.

He thought that he should actually be angry with her for bringing up some bad memories, but for some reason he just couldn't be mad at her for that. After all, he brought them up enough himself. And why should he get angry at her for something someone else did to him? That just wouldn't be fair.

So instead of leaving in an angry tiff, Harry leant back against the stone wall and watched as Taggart paced back and forth lecturing herself and occasionally hitting her forehead to make a point. Finally, when it seemed like Taggart was running out of way to call herself an idiot, Harry spoke.

"Well, as amusing as it was to watch you hit yourself, there're still a few floors of the dungeons that I would like to explore. And since I have completely forgotten the reason you were hitting yourself, I suggest we continue on. Unless, of course, you want to go back upstairs and leave me to wallow in my dungeons." Taggart stared at Harry.

"You mean…" she said slowly, looking at him like he had grown a second head, "You mean you aren't angry at me?" her tone made it obvious that she thought he was going to eat her. Harry smirked and shook his head.

"You are a daft one. Do I look like I'm angry?"

"Noooo…" She said, frowning slightly. "Why aren't you?" Harry sighed.

"Does it matter?" Taggart shook her head. "Well, then, come on. Here, take the cricket bat. I don't want to lug your things around." Harry thrust the bat at her, smirking, and started walking. Taggart clenched her teeth, glaring at his back.

"_BASEBALL BAT!_" Harry grinned at the enraged shout.

"Cricket bat, baseball bat. Same difference."

"It is _not_!" Taggart said loudly, then launched into an explanation of how a cricket bat differed from a baseball bat. As Harry had heard the same explanation when he had first called the thing a cricket bat he tuned her out, opting instead to examine the increasingly darker and more frightening dungeons.

It was on the tenth floor that Harry stopped dead.

On the last few floors, he hadn't bothered to light any more torches. (Mostly because it was really bothering Taggart.) Instead, he had conjured a light and Taggart had lit her wand.

Taggart, who had been looking over her shoulder, ran straight into Harry's back with a slight 'oof!'

"Jeez, would you warn me when you're just going to stop like that?" she asked, her tone annoyed. Harry didn't hear her, too busy staring at the dungeons.

"Hey H-, Potter? What's up?" Taggart peered around Harry's shoulder, glancing at his face then down the dark, damp stone corridor. She bit her lip and drew her shoulders in slightly.

"Oh." She whispered. Harry blinked then looked at her without really seeing her. Slowly, stiffly, he turned back to looking down the corridor.

Why hadn't he remembered that the last level had been modelled after Azkaban? Had even been guarded by Dementors at one time? A shiver ran down Harry's back and he shuddered.

He couldn't think. What was going on? Why did it feel like he was running and getting nowhere?

'_NOT HARRY!_'

'_Taken…. Ginny…._'

"HARRY!" a sudden stinging sensation on his cheek made Harry blink. "Harry! Snap out of it! Come on, you're really scaring me!" Harry shook his head slightly and looked down. He frowned. What was a girl doing here? She shouldn't be here. This place was only for…. For murderers….

"**_HARRY_**!" Harry heard the scream, heard it mix with another scream, and another and another and another….

'_NOT HARRY! HOW COULD YOU? I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN! HARRY! PLEASE, I'LL DO ANYTHING! I DIDN'T DO IT…._' The last thing Harry remembered was a red beam of light shooting towards him and the echo of a shouted spell.

**OATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOAT**

Harry blinked.

'_What the hell_?' why was he staring at the ceiling of the Duel Room? And how the hell did he get there? And why was he there? And why -

"If you even think about moving I'll knock you out with the baseball bat."

- was Taggart kneeling beside him, staring at him like that?

"What?" Harry muttered, bringing a hand up to rub his eyes. It was stopped by a sudden weight and he blinked in surprise, then looked at Taggart who was holding his hand down with a determined expression.

"I mean it. Don't move or I'll knock you out." Harry's eyes narrowed. Taggart glared back.

"Don't give me that look, buddy. I'm only passing on the threat." Harry's frown turned curious and Taggart rolled her eyes in annoyance. "Earnulf said if I let you move before he gets back he'll kill me ten times over." She said in answer to his unasked question. "And since I want to live, if you move I'll knock you out."

"Why not just kill me?" Harry asked, smirking slightly. Taggart gave him a look.

"Are you stupid? Then I'd get killed thirty times over! As it is, I'd probably get killed twice, but that's better than ten or thirty." Harry gave her a strange look.

"You're weird." He said, looking back up at the ceiling.

"What tipped you off?" Taggart asked dryly. "Was it the infatuation with a baseball bat or the casual reference to what would be a very painful death?" Harry snorted, smirking slightly.

"What happened?" he asked after a moment, glancing at Taggart. She licked her lips and looked away.

"Well, you went all…. Weird on me." She said tentatively. "In the last dungeon? You just kind of stared ahead and didn't move. And you got really white. You looked almost see-through." Harry blinked and looked back at the ceiling.

"I slapped you, but that didn't work. Actually, it seemed to make you even worse." Harry looked back at Taggart at her apologetic tone. She was looking at her lap, twiddling her thumbs. "And then, well, I couldn't think of what else to do and I hit you with a stupefy. You should have heard Earnulf when he found out. He was so mad at me." Taggart smiled sadly, then suddenly looked up at him with narrowed eyes.

"And you!" she exclaimed, making Harry blink at the sudden mood change, "I don't care how you feel about me, but if you _ever_ scare me like that, I'll curse you to all seven hells and back and then I'll kill you! Fifty times! Do you understand?"

"Yes, Mum." Harry answered. Taggart's eyes narrowed again.

"You better. And if you insist on insulting me by calling me old, I insist you call me 'Mom', _not_ 'Mum'. Mum is weird." Harry raised a confused eyebrow and Taggart pressed her lips together.

"Stop _doing_ that!" she said, her tone demanding.

"Why?" Harry asked back, his tone mischievous.

"Because -"

"Ah, Harry, you are awake." Taggart started violently and Harry snickered.

"Hi Earnie. How're you?" the ghost pressed his lips together as he floated over to the couch.

"That is a question I should be asking you." Harry sighed and looked up at the ceiling.

"I'm fine."

"Truly?" Earnulf prodded. Harry blinked.

"I dunno."

"I see." Earnulf replied. His tone made it obvious that he actually _did_ know. "Well, drink this. It will get rid of the effects of the stupefy." As he spoke, Earnulf handed Harry a glass of some red liquid and glared at Taggart. She gave him an annoyed look back.

"Effects?" Harry asked, eyeing the glass suspiciously. Earnulf's glare at Taggart intensified.

"Yes. If someone who is in shock is stunned, it has some rather unfavourable consequences on the person. And since Miss Cadence here did exactly that and stunned you when you were in shock-"

"Oh, give me a break already! I didn't know! And besides, I think I was going into shock myself."

Taggart interrupted. Earnulf gave her a very uncommon snort.

"I do not believe you could go into shock if your life depended on it." Taggart frowned.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Harry sighed and rolled his eyes.

"As much I like listening to you two arguing, would you stop? I want to know what this stuff is before I drink it." Earnulf and Taggart immediately stopped glaring at each other and turned to Harry.

"Ah, yes. It is a variation on the dreamless sleep potion and the pepper up potion. It is designed to give you an energy boost, as well as put you to sleep so that the energy boost can correct the problems that would have happened via the stunning spell." Harry raised an eyebrow at the glass.

"Really. What's it called?"

"Tony hasn't decided yet."

"What?" Harry asked, startled.

"Oh, don't worry. It's perfectly safe." Earnulf said. "Tony is very good at that kind of thing." Taggart snickered at the look on Harry's face and Earnulf sighed.

"Do not look at me like that. I said it is perfectly safe, and it is. Now drink it."

"No, I don't think I want to."

"Drink it."

"But -"

"DRINK IT!"

"OKAY! Okay! I'll drink it!" Harry quickly downed the whole thing, surprised at the fact that it actually tasted rather good. The last thing he heard before he passed out was Earnulf telling Cadence that she shouldn't be laughing at an invalid.

**OATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOAT**

And that's the end! Hope it makes up for the wait.

I don't really know about this chapter. Let me know if you think it works and keeps up with the general feel of the story.


	9. Chapter 9

Okay. This chapter will be up much sooner than the last one. I promise. What? Don't you believe me? I promise! Really! Honest, I do! (This was written before the chapter, to make myself write said chapter.)

There! Posted before even a week is up! I told you! Well, I told myself, actually. (You know, it doesn't have the same effect when you say 'I told you so' to yourself. I wonder why. :-) ) Anyways, hope you like this chapter! It has more dialogue in it than the other chapters and I had a lot of fun writing it, but I don't know how it's going to read. Let me know!

(I have forty revii-eews! I have forty revii-eews!)

**Khadon** – Wow. I think that's the soonest I've ever gotten a review after posting a chapter. A little over an hour. Cool!

The cricket bat was a spur of the moment kind of thing, but lots of fun to write! I'm glad you enjoyed it as much as I did.

Cadence is really turning out well, I think. It's nice that someone else agrees with me! And, as the author's note says, (If anyone but me actually bothers reading them) I will try to get this chapter up much sooner than the last one.

**_e_** – Okay!

**reviewer** – 'A stringy of cliché bad WAFFy moments'…? What does that mean? I'm afraid I don't really understand what the problem is. How is she like Cho? I really don't see it. Maybe there's something in her that I'm missing. If you could be a little bit clearer, you know, give me some scenes that made you think that, I'll see what it is. Maybe you just don't like her. #grins# (I always have trouble writing my own stories because I end up not liking my characters. Maybe the same thing is happening here. I really hope not, 'cause I like Cadence!)

Oh, God, **_NO!_** She is **_not_** Ginny! NO! No no no! Fear not, the British thing is just something I put in. I do the same thing sometimes.

A Dementor human half-breed animagus thing? #raises one eyebrow# Where do you come up with these things? (Is Cadence somehow leeching Harry's emotions?) Nah, Cadence is just an American witch. That's all.

Thanks for the review though! First real criticism I've got. I'll work on it!

**ashibabi** – OAT. Yeah. #grins# Wouldn't Harry look adorable with puppy eyes? I should draw it sometime, when I get better…

Cadence is supposed to be a big mouth, at least when she's angry. She also speaks before she thinks. (Well, she's supposed to. That's what I'm trying to do. It's different from all the other characters I've written, so I'm not sure if I'm doing it properly.)

You know, I should have had him bring some chocolate as well. Darn! It completely slipped my mind. #sigh# Ah, well.

Y'see, growing up in my house, if you saw a really good opportunity you'd take it and scare the person, but it's not constant. We get a few really good scares a year, but that's about it. Though there is this one guy at my work(place), as long as he doesn't know you're there, all you have to do is say 'boo' loudly and he jumps so badly. It's hilarious! I have so much fun when he's at work… hehehe…

**gaul 1** – It's coming up! Soon! I promise! I'm just setting the premise for it! The same for what Cadence was running from. And other stuff, too.

**CherryChick914** – Phew! #wipes brow# I did think that the chapter was a little different from the rest of it. I was listening to Herman's Hermits instead of the stuff I had been listening to, and it put me in a different mood. I'm glad it worked!

Yeah, Cadence's feelings are in the open. Could make things easier, or harder. It all depends. I know (of course I know, how could I not know? She's my character!) that Cadence would _like_ Harry to suddenly realise and confess his undying love for her now that he knows how she feels, but she knows he won't actually do that. Hmm. That's the problem with writing a story from one person's point of view and not the other. This kind of stuff just doesn't get out in the open! (Like Dean Thomas in the books.)

Anyways, hope you like this chapter!

_Do you think I really have to do a disclaimer? Is there some kind of monster lawyer out there just waiting to pounce on me if I don't? #glances around nervously# er… well… Idon'townHarryPotter!... hehehe…_

Once and for All Time – Chapter 9

Harry groaned. He didn't want to wake up! He was having such a nice dream…

"Psst…. Hey, Potter!" Harry opened his eyes sleepily, blinking blearily at the figure crouching beside him.

"C'mon! There's something you have to see!" Harry frowned, running a hand over his face.

"Mmm?"

"Potteeerr! Come _on_!" Harry moaned and rolled over. He wasn't going to get up.

"_Potter_! Get up! Or I _swear_ I'll dump you in a bucket of ice!" Harry didn't move. "Complete with ice pick!" Harry blinked and looked over his shoulder.

"Taggart? What the hell are you doing in my room?" he asked, his tongue heavy with sleep. The witch rolled her eyes and straightened, putting her hands on her hips.

"In case you hadn't noticed, you're not in your room. Earnulf wouldn't let me move you yesterday. So, in case the significance of that doesn't penetrate your thick skull, you are still in the Duel Room. Now get_ up_! You _have_ to see this." Harry drew his eyebrows together disgustedly.

"I'm not getting up. I was actually having a very nice dream, for your information. Just be glad I don't drop you in the lake for that." with that, Harry put his head back down on the arm of the couch and closed his eyes, only to have Taggart start constantly poking his side.

"Get up. Get up. Get up. Get up. Get up. Get up. Get up. Get up. Get u-"

"All right! I'll get up! For God's sake, _stop poking me_!"

"Get up!"

"I'm getting up!"

"Not fast enough!"

"Says who?"

"Says me! Oh, come on. You would think you didn't know how to stand up. Here, this is what you do to get up. First, sit up." Taggart placed her hands on Harry's shoulder and forcefully pulled him into a sitting position. Harry was too surprised to do anything about it.

"Then what you do is move the blanket off," Taggart snatched the edge of the blanket that had been covering him and yanked it onto the floor.

"Next, you swing your legs over like this and put your feet on the floor," Taggart grabbed Harry's feet, pulled them over the edge of the couch and firmly put them on the floor.

"Then, finally, you stand up. Like so." Taggart stood up, grabbing Harry's arms as she did, then yanked him to his feet.

"There. Now _come on_!" Cadence grabbed a stunned Harry's hand and dragged him out of the Duel Room, tripping over the blanket as she went. She growled and kicked the blanket across the room.

"Honestly, I don't know why I like you." She muttered as she stalked out of the room, still dragging Harry. She stopped in the Entrance Hall and pointed.

"There." Harry looked where she was pointing and all thoughts of throwing her in the lake disappeared.

"_Hedwig_?" Harry breathed, taking a hesitant step forward. The white owl that had been resting on a hastily conjured bird stand ruffled its feathers, hooted, flew off of the stand and landed on Harry's shoulder. "Hedwig!" Harry exclaimed happily, stroking the bird. She hooted and rubbed her feathered cheek on his.

"Wow, Hedwig! I didn't even hope that you were still alive!" Harry said, turning his head to look his first real friend in the eye. She hooted in an annoyed way and ruffled her tail feathers, as if to say 'I? Not alive? What a stupid idea!' Harry laughed and stroked the owl again.

"Stupid, I know. Can you forgive me?" Hedwig made a soft cooing sound and rubbed Harry's cheek with her head.

"What took you so long to get here? Were the wards that hard to get through?" Hedwig hooted again and seemed to nod her head.

"Well, I'm sorry for that. But I must say, you look absolutely wonderful." Hedwig cooed again and began preening her feathers. Harry laughed.

"C'mon, you ostentatious owl. You must be hungry." Hedwig hooted yet again, giving Harry a look that plainly said, 'I am a poor little starving birdie! Feed me!' Harry laughed again and headed to the kitchen, still stroking the snow-white bird.

It was only after Hedwig had eaten and drunk her fill that Harry remembered Taggart.

"Oh, Jesus!" Harry exclaimed, hitting his forehead. It didn't seem strange to him that he was upset that he had completely ignored her. "C'mon Hedwig, there's someone I want you to meet." Harry held his arm out and Hedwig stepped daintily onto the proffered appendage. Harry shook his head, smiling.

"You know," he said as he walked out of the kitchen, "Sometimes I think you're too human for your own good." Hedwig screeched and waved her wings a few times. Harry instinctively ducked, laughing.

"Sorry, sorry! I take it back!" he exclaimed and Hedwig settled, ruffling her feathers in an annoyed way. Harry grinned at her as he walked upstairs. He didn't know how, but he knew that Taggart was in the 'dance-studio-thingermabobber.' Come to think of it, he also knew that Earnulf was floating around in the practice room, Sir Anthony was still in the room Harry had designated as 'ATGW', (Animagus Transformations Gone Wrong) more commonly known as 'atgaw', and Beorhtwaru was, strangely enough, in a mirror up on the seventh floor.

Harry paused, frowning. Then, deciding that it had something to do with being the master of the castle and he just hadn't noticed it before, he shrugged and continued on his way.

Taggart was stretching when Harry and Hedwig reached the room. Harry knocked on the open door and Taggart looked up and grinned.

"Hey. Took you long enough to remember me." Even though he could tell she was teasing, Harry felt a pang of guilt.

"Right, about that. I'm sorry, it's just -" Taggart shook her head and jumped to her feet.

"Don't worry about it. Honestly, I would have acted exactly the same." She paused and looked at Harry thoughtfully. "At least, I think I would." She grinned at him and continued stretching. Harry blinked at her.

"Oh, here, I want you to meet Hedwig." Taggart straightened and smiled.

"Kay."

"Right. Well, Hedwig, this is Cadence Taggart. Taggart, this is Hedwig." Taggart grinned and slowly reached over to stroke the owl.

"Oh, aren't you a pretty girl? Yes you are, oh you are a beautiful bird!" Hedwig hooted happily and gave Harry a look that said, to Harry, at least, 'See? Someone does appreciate me.' Harry shook his head.

"You're spoiling her, really. I don't think she deserves it." Hedwig screeched and nipped his ear, quite hard, really, and flew over to Taggart's shoulder.

"Ow!" Harry cried, rubbing his ear. Taggart laughed and stuck her tongue out at him.

"You deserved it. Saying this beauty doesn't deserve being cooed over. She oughta've taken your nose off."

"Your sympathy is astounding." Harry said dryly, still rubbing his ear.

"Sympathy? Hmm." Taggart frowned and looked at Hedwig. "If he thinks that was sympathy, I wonder what he thinks kindness is?" Hedwig hooted in agreement. "You know, Hedwig, maybe we should have him institutionalised. Save him from himself."

"OI!" Harry exclaimed as Hedwig bobbed her head. Taggart grinned at Harry.

"Well, Potter, it's been decided. You're going to an institute. Preferably the Funny Farm." Harry gave Taggart a strange look and then shook his head.

"Right." He muttered, looking around. He frowned. "You changed something in here." Taggart looked at him sharply.

"How do you know?" Harry looked at her guiltily.

"Er… well… I uh…."

"Did you watch me dance?" Taggart asked suspiciously.

"Maybe…" Harry said, not looking at her.

"What did you think?" Harry blinked, surprised. He hadn't been expecting that.

"Sorry?" Taggart rolled her eyes, smiling slightly.

"What did you think of my dancing?"

"Oh! Right. It was… good." Taggart raised her eyebrows.

"Good." She repeated.

"Uh… yes. Good." Taggart looked at him a moment longer, then turned to Hedwig.

"What does good mean in Potter-speak?" Harry rolled his eyes.

"It means you're a very good dancer." He said, giving her an annoyed look. Taggart smiled.

"Thanks." Harry blinked at her.

"You're welcome." He said after a moment of silence. "What was that music you were dancing to? The one where you did that weird move and fell down?" Taggart gave him a surprised look.

"You were watching then?" Harry nodded. "Oh." Taggart sat down suddenly, careful to not jostle Hedwig. Crossing her legs, Taggart looked up at Harry with a grin.

"Pull up some floor, if you want. Or make a chair, either one works." Harry gave her a strange look, but sat down anyways. Taggart grinned at him.

"My music teacher at school wrote that music. She always insisted that music was its own kind of magic and that it should be taught as such. I don't know why she stayed at my school, which really wasn't the best place to be, but she did and she taught me everything I know about music. When she wrote that piece, she had the school orchestra perform it for the whole school. One of the stupidest things she'd ever done. It was plagiarised so much after that and she couldn't get it patented, as it were, because she performed it before she told anyone she wrote it.

"After that, she put a spell on it so that only people who admitted that they didn't write it and that she did could use it. I asked her if I could have a copy of it, and she gave it to me. I remember when I heard it for the first time, and this is going to sound really corny, but when I first heard it, my heart soared. It was like the music brought to life how I _feel_ about life, you know? The ultimate love for the ultimate high, the feeling that _I_ am alive.

"I felt like I was flying and I saw in my head how to dance to it. So I asked her for it and I've been working on the dance moves ever since. It's taking a long time, because every time I listen to it, I hear something else or understand the music and the feeling behind it better, and I have to change the steps. I've got about a third of the song done." Harry nodded thoughtfully. Then he grinned at the witch.

"I think you wanted to talk about it." Taggart gave him a look that said he had no idea.

"Oh _Gawd_ yes! I've kept it a secret for three years. _Three whole years_! It's been driving me crazy! But I promised Mrs. Holt that I wouldn't tell anyone who might try and steal it about it and since my friends had no qualms about downloading music off the internet I knew I couldn't tell them because they'd probably try to copy it and then the spell would interfere with their computers and then I'd get in trouble, and the only person I could talk to about it is on the other side of the world and I didn't want to talk about it over the phone and it really has been driving me crazy and I'm sorry and I'll shut up now." Taggart shut her mouth with a snap and looked down at her lap. Harry laughed.

"You shouldn't keep secrets."

"Oh, keeping secrets is fine so long as I can talk to someone about them."

"Doesn't that defeat the purpose?"

"Not if you talk to the person who told you the secret. I talked to Mrs. Holt about it before, but after I left school I didn't get to talk to her very often. And Amda is, like I said, on the other side of the world so I can't talk to her."

"_Amda_?" Harry repeated, frowning. "There's a name I've never heard before." Cadence laughed.

"Her name's actually Amanda, but she hated the way everyone shortened her name the same way. She was either called Amy or Andy or Mandy or Manda and sometimes even Manny, and she hated them all. So I started calling her Amda. That's what everyone calls her now."

"Oh. And what do they call you? Musical ending?" Taggart blinked.

"You know what a cadence is?"

"You say that like you thought I was stupid."

"No! I just didn't think that cadence would be part of your vocabulary. From what I've heard, you're musically inept." Harry rolled her eyes.

"You can't be inept at something you've never tried. Aunt Petunia made Dudley take piano lessons over the summer when I was sixteen." Harry pushed away the memories that surfaced at that sentence. It was getting easier to forget.

"Ah. I see. It all makes sense now. You don't actually know anything about music." Taggart grinned teasingly. Harry raised an eyebrow at her.

"Well, I know that you put notes together to make music and that music is completely mathematical and I know what a cadence is and I know that you haven't answered my question."

"What question?"

"Do people call you musical ending?"

"_No_. I'd kill 'em." Cadence glared at Harry. "Actually, most people don't connect my name with what it actually means. Most of them just call me Cat." Harry blinked.

"Cat?"

"Cat." Taggart answered, nodding.

"Why?"

"My initials. Cadence Aria Taggart. I'm just glad I don't have a last name that starts with D. I don't like the thought of being called Cad." Harry smirked.

"I think you should be glad you don't have a last name that starts with W. People would start calling you Crow. Or Caw-Caw." Taggart shuddered.

"Perish the though. You have a good name though. No vowel in the middle. Though I could always call you Com. Or maybe Dot Com. Actually, how about Dotty?" Harry frowned.

"How the heck do you get that from Harry James Potter? I would think you would just call me Hairy." Taggart snorted.

"Nah. That has a bad mental image. But it's quite easy to get Dotty from Harry. After all, Harry is short for Howard. Hal is also short for Howard. Hal is the name of the computer in the movie'2001 Space Odyssey'. Hal is a play on IBM, which is a computer company. If you search for something on the web, which is on a computer, it's mostly with a period and 'com' following the period. People don't say 'period com,' they say 'dot com.' So I could call you Dot Com, or Dotty for short."

"Except for the fact that my name is Harry, not Howard."

"Your name isn't Hal either. But it could work."

"In your dreams."

"Don't you know I'm the centre of the universe? So if I want, my dreams can become reality."

"Once again, in your dreams."

"You're impossible."

"So're you."

"I'm not as bad as you."

"No, you're worse."

"Am not."

"Are too."

"Am not."

"Are too."

"Am not."

"Are too. Say 'am not' again, I'll dump you in the lake."

"Fine. _I am not as bad as you. You are worse._"

"Ah, shaddup."

"Shaddup? What's that?"

"Stop talking."

"Why?"

"You're annoying me."

"All the more reason for me to keep talking."

"You do know that I could make sure that the lake is mostly frozen over?"

"Right. Shutting up now."

"Good."

"Isn't it?"

"You're talking."

"Why, look at that! I am! I'll shut up now."

"Good."

"Isn't it?"

"Next stop, Frozen Lake."

"Sorry."

"You're still talking."

"I said I was sorry!"

"Then why are you still talking?"

"Because I have to defend myself. And you asked a question that needed answering."

"Right. No more questions. Now shut up."

"Can do."

"Obviously not."

"Okay, now you shut up."

"Hey, I'm not the one that started this whole thing.

"Actually, I think you are. If you had just not said anything after I said am not, this wouldn't have happened."

"And if you had just accepted the fact that you're more impossible than I am, this wouldn't have happened. So it is your fault."

"Yeah, but -"

"Shut up."

"Fine."

"Fine."

"Fine."

"Fine."

"**_FINE_**!" Cadence glared at Harry. Harry glared at Cadence.

Harry snorted. Cadence giggled. Then they were silent.

Hedwig hooted and they burst out laughing.

OatOatOatOatOatOatOatOatOatOatOatOatOatOatOatOatOatOatOatOatOatOatOatOatOatOatOatOatOat

"Hey, Harry?" Harry glanced up from the book he was reading.

"Yeah?" Taggart came further into the Duel Room and carefully sat down on a chair.

"Uh… Have you figured out what's wrong with the wards? It's just that it's been almost two months now and I just kind of wanted to… you know, leave. Not that I don't like staying here with you," she added hastily, "It's just that my friends are probably going insane wondering where I am, and there's this dance competition that I _reeeaaaally_ want to enter and I was just wondering if you _had_ found a way for me to leave and… yeah. That's it." Harry sighed and put his book down.

"No. I haven't found a way for you to leave." he answered truthfully.

"Oh." Taggart's shoulders slumped slightly. "Do you have _any_ ideas?" Harry sighed again.

"I don't." he replied, shaking his head. She sighed and leant back in the chair, eyes downcast. They were both silent for a while.

"You haven't been working on them for a few weeks." Taggart said suddenly, not looking at him. Her tone was slightly accusing. Harry winced guiltily, even though he knew he didn't have a choice in the matter. Well, no, that wasn't true. He could research them if he wanted to. The only problem was that, the last time he had started his research, he had actually been physically sick from the pain.

"There's a good reason for that," he started, and Taggart looked at him steadily.

"Really?" she asked. Harry winced again. He had never heard her sound like this before. He nodded. "Well then, why don't you tell me? And why haven't you told me about it? You should've known that I'd notice that you're never in the library any more." Harry looked away from her accusing stare.

"Look, it's just that…" he trailed off. He didn't want to admit his weakness to her. Sure, he had come to think of her as an almost friend, but he still didn't know her that well.

"Just that what?" Taggart demanded. Harry sighed, then looked at her straight on.

"Tell you what. You tell me how you managed to find this place, _and_ what you know about me, and then I'll tell you." '_Maybe_.' He added silently to himself. Taggart's eyes narrowed.

"Excuse me? What the hell gives you the right to make a deal like that? I shouldn't have to tell you anything! You're the one who owns the castle whose wards won't let me out! I've even tried a few times, and it doesn't work! And I'm getting _really_ sick of cleaning this place, no matter how much you pay me!" Taggart's voice rose as she spoke and by the end she was yelling, on her feet in front of Harry and glaring at him so hard that, if looks could kill, he would be drowned, suffocated, strangled, stabbed, cremated and six feet under all in a matter of seconds.

Harry sighed and rubbed his temple.

"Look, would you just calm down please?"

"NO, I WILL NOT 'CALM DOWN'! NOT UNTIL YOU TELL ME WHAT THE BLOODY HELL IS GOING ON!" Taggart stamped her foot for emphasis. Harry surged to his feet.

"ALL RIGHT! I'LL TELL YOU WHAT THE BLOODY HELL IS GOING ON! NOW _SIT DOWN_!" Cadence's eyes widened and she dropped meekly down onto the chair. Harry took a deep breath and ran a hand over his face.

"Right. Look, would you just tell me how you ended up here?" Cadence looked up, eyes narrowed and mouth open to, most likely, started yelling at him again. Harry glared back and held his hand up.

"No, don't start yelling. Just tell me how you got here and what you know about me and I swear I'll answer your questions, all right?" Taggart pursed her lips and her eyes narrowed further, but she nodded. Harry sighed and sat down.

"Thank you." He said. He knew that it wasn't really fair, and that he should have asked her this a hell of a long time ago and not brought it up now, but he hadn't thought of it before and he needed to know now. Needed to know if he could trust her. And even then, it didn't mean he would.

Taggart sighed as well, still looking angry.

"All right. So I was in Scotland, in a dance competition. I had won first place, but only because all the other people in the competition were amateurs. I didn't do a very good job. Anyways, it was after the competition and I was back-packing to another place in Scotland, just because I've always wanted to do that, when I saw a few flashes of light in the woods beside me. I knew they were magic because nothing muggle makes that kind of light, and I also knew that there weren't supposed to be any magical people around. So I went to look and see what was going on." Cadence paused, smirking and shaking her head. "Sometimes I wonder at my utter stupidity.

"Anyways, the lights were coming from a clearing which was filled with a bunch of people in black cloaks. Turns out they were the Death Eaters that your government hadn't managed to catch. They heard me and the next thing I know, I'm running for dear life away from the bunch of them, my wand in my bag and them throwing all kinds of curses and jinxes and spells at me. Then there was this weird flash of light and I thought that I had been hit by a spell. But everything was still working all right so I kept running.

"Then I ended up at your castle, and since I didn't hear them chasing me anymore I stopped running. You know what happened after that." Cadence stopped talking and Harry nodded thoughtfully.

So she had come upon the place by accident, just as he had done.

"Right. What about me? What do you know about Harry Potter?" Taggart sighed and leant back in the chair, crossing her arms and legs at the same time.

"What do I know about Harry Potter…" she trailed off and gave a tiny laugh. "Well, for one, I know he's utterly gorgeous, unfortunately for me." Harry blushed. Taggart grinned at him.

"I also know he doesn't like being alone a lot, no matter what he says, and I know he has a great sense of humour that is often directed at making me annoyed or uncomfortable." Harry couldn't stop the small smile that turned up the corners of his mouth.

"I also know that he is completely innocent of the crimes that the British Ministry of Magic said he committed, and that it made a lot of people very angry when they put him in Azkaban." Harry was listening intently now. He had wondered, every so often, what had happened while he was in Azkaban and here was someone who was telling him some of what went on.

"I know that, of the people that were made angry, none were more so that ninety-nine percent of the entire wizarding community in the world. Magical Britain _immediately_ lost all of their support from the States when they threw you in Azkaban. Canada, too, and Africa, South America, _Australia_… pretty much everyone but Britain. Oh, we still fought and protected ourselves and the muggles in Britain, but no one helped the magical community. And anyone in the magical community that had even an iota of intelligence knew that you were innocent and left to help the other countries. So not only did they lose the help of everyone else in the world, they also lost the help of the few good people they had. Except for a few, of course." Cadence didn't look at Harry and he knew she was talking about the people he had once called friends.

"Anyways, magical Britain was pretty much flattened, but everywhere else seemed to be holding well. Then Voldemort pulled a huge, all out attack. On everyone. At exactly the same time. It was the greatest bit of strategic planning in the history of warfare. No one was able to help the other, no one could go to the aid of places that had fallen. I don't think anyone but Voldemort actually knew how many people he had working for him. That was just before he went and got you out of Azkaban." Cadence's eyes had a faraway look and Harry realised for the first time that she must have fought in the war.

"Anyways." Cadence blinked and shook her head, glancing at Harry. "Somehow, he managed to copy muggle TV's with a spell and, being the arrogant God damned bastard he was, he was going to make everyone watch how he got you to join him. I remember that people were so worried that you were going to join him. One guy where I was said he wouldn't blame you for joining Voldemort, after what those people did to you. You honestly have no idea how it felt when you turned him down, and then when you destroyed him. It was actually kind of funny. When you did whatever it was you did to get rid of him, people were still shocked that you had turned him down. It took about five minutes for everyone to realise what had happened." Cadence smiled thoughtfully at Harry.

"I never properly thanked you, did I?" she asked suddenly. Harry blinked, surprised.

"Sorry?"

"I never thanked you. For destroying that son of a bitch." Harry stared at her. He was thrown for a loop, going from imagining what it must have been like to being thanked, just like that. Cadence giggled at the look on his face.

"You don't have to look so shocked. Save that for if you ever leave the castle. You'd never be free of all the people who want to thank you." Harry shook his head dazedly. He didn't know what to think. God, he didn't even know what to feel! His entire body felt numb.

"So you're saying that I'm still famous?" he finally asked. Cadence burst out laughing.

"Oh God! Are you still famous? Is the sky blue? Can I dance? Do birds fly? Do fish swim? For Christ's sake, even the muggles know about you!" Harry slumped back in his seat.

"Lovely." He muttered. Cadence laughed again.

"Oh, suck it up. Now, I've kept my end of the deal. You keep yours." Harry stared into space for a moment, trying to make everything he had been told sink in. Finally, deciding it was a hopeless cause and it was only going to happen after he had time to think about it all, he sighed.

"Right. Well, the thing is, I could research the wards but I don't want to. No, don't say anything. It's because…." Harry trailed off.

"When I first started researching them," he said suddenly, "I kept getting a headache. As I kept up my research, the headache got worse. Then I started feeling ill, and that got worse. The last time I looked at one of those books, I was actually sick. But the headache and the illness and everything went away as soon as I stopped thinking about the wards. I honestly have no idea what's going on, and I don't know how to go about looking for a way to get you out when doing anything makes me sick." Cadence stared at him.

"Are you serious?" she asked. Harry nodded.

"Completely." Taggart dropped back into the chair.

"Well, God damn. Isn't that just great? I mean, like I said before, I honestly don't mind staying here. It's just that I do actually have a life, no matter how unbelievable that sounds, and I would kind of like to get back to it once in a while." Harry smiled wryly.

"I can understand that. Though I think I can honestly say that if you did leave, I would miss you. But only a little bit." Taggart smiled.

"I'm touched." She said, her tone slightly sarcastic. Harry opened his mouth to say that she should be when, completely out of the blue, the wards flared to life around him. Magic flowed through him, leaving a ton of knowledge behind.

Harry frowned curiously, a slight smile playing around the corners of his mouth. He could sense the whole castle! Even more than before, and he could sense the wards and… was that… the reason

Taggart couldn't… leave…

Harry's mouth dropped open in utter disbelief.

"Oh, you have _got_ to be kidding me!"

OatOatOatOatOatOatOatOatOatOatOatOatOatOatOatOatOatOatOatOatOatOatOatOatOatOatOatOatOat

End chapter!

Hmm. Does that count as a cliff-hanger?


	10. Chapter 10

#jaw drops#… _twelve_ reviews for the last chapter!… methinks I should leave more cliff-hangers. What say you to that?

(Fifty-two reviews! YESSSSS!)

I know this took a really long time to get out, and I'm sorry. It's just that we had family up from the States and I was able to spend, at the most, two hours on my computer in the ten days they were here. And then I was out of the habit of being on my computer, and then it took a bit longer to get up the urge to write. But it's back, and I really hope this chapter makes up for the long wait.

**Khadon** – Okay. You, #points finger# are a fast reader. You reviewed half an hour after I posted! Half an hour! Not even! Thank you very, very much. #smiles#

Some ideas on why she can't leave, eh? Well, a while back one of my reviewers got close. Maybe you did too! I'm hoping that the actual reason is original enough that no one else thought of it.

_theM_– Meanie? Moi? NO! Not sweet li'l ole me! (Hope you keep on loving the story!)

ashibabi – Are you all right! Take a deep breath! Don't die on me! Come on, on three, take a deep breath! THREE! BREATHE! Better now? Good! Sooo…. I think I missed something. What do you mean, 'that's what happened'?

Poor you, not being able to sneak out of bed. I feel for you.

Crazy, isn't it? I mean, I was shocked, literally _shocked_ when I realised she had a life. …….#bursts out laughing#

**_r_** – I'm sorry! It won't happen again! (Well, actually, there's a very good chance it will.) And I shall go on unto the end of the Earth! #heroic stance#

**_Treck_ **– Masterpiece? #blushes# Thank you!

You know how many people have complained about that cliff-hanger? I now know why so many authors are addicted to putting them into their stories. I don't know if I will, 'cause that was the only time I was actually able to put in a cliff-hanger to my liking. It might not happen again. No promises, though. -D

_Alaranth-88_ – I'm hurrying! Cross my heart! Reason, straight ahead! #pause# #realises what she just wrote# #snickers#

**_gaul 1_** – Thanks for the review! Reason is coming up! First thing this chapter. Byes!

DragonFoxx – Strangely, I can't believe it either. I actually never thought I was going to put in a cliff-hanger. But it was just too good to resist!

I had lots of fun writing that little name tiff. They're so much fun. #grin#

_Auntie T_ – Hehehe.

**CherryChick914** – I know this isn't up really soon, and I hope you're not so angry that you'll stop reviewing! I was kind of scared that you weren't going to review because of that cliff-hanger. #blushes# I was wrong, but still. Glad you liked the chapter!

Dark Lord Lorak – Harry will confront his friends pretty soon, I think. I'm not sure. I'm still toying with an idea that would kind of change the story. Anyways, glad you like it! I hope this chapter is worth the wait.

**_Tondo-the-half-elf_** – I'm working on it! Really! I know this chapter isn't up really soon, but it's been a weird few weeks.

Once and for All Time – Chapter 10

Harry stared at the magic in disbelief. This could not be real. Honestly, it couldn't.

"What? What's wrong? What is it? Harry?" Harry blinked and looked at Cadence, mouth open slightly. She was frowning worriedly at him.

"What is it?" she asked again, and Harry slowly shook his head.

"It's… God, I don't believe it! We were set up! _Set up_!" Harry threw himself back in his chair. Cadence blinked.

"Huh?" Harry groaned.

"Do you not get it? We were set up! Like the time I locked Ron and Hermione in a broom closet to make them admit they liked each other." Cadence blinked again.

"So you're saying that someone locked us in a castle, as opposed to a broom closet?" Harry nodded glumly. Cadence wrinkled her nose.

"That makes no sense. Why would someone do that?"

"I don't bloody know!" Harry exclaimed, a moment before he got a kind of telepathic message. He stared into space. Then he blinked.

"What? Harry, what?" Harry groaned and leant forward, putting his face in his hands.

"Why would someone do that." Harry repeated blandly, his voice muffled by his hands. "I'll tell you why. Because some idiot person who saw into the future decided to mess with my life." Harry suddenly stood up, eyes blazing furiously.

"Jesus _Christ_!" he exclaimed, throwing his clawed fingers into the air. "Why can't people just leave me the bloody hell alone? Isn't it bad enough that I have to walk around with people staring at me and bloody pointing at my head? _Nooo_! I have to have people messing around with my bloody private life as well! Why don't they just stick me in a museum? Then _everyone_ could stare and point at me all they bloody well want!" Cadence watched him calmly as he ranted, blinking occasionally. When he finished, she blinked again.

"I thought I was the one who was supposed to have fits like that." Harry gave her a look.

"Oh, shut up." He said, dropping back down into the chair. Cadence stuck her tongue out at him. After a moment of silence, Cadence spoke.

"Are you calm enough now to tell me what exactly is going on?" Harry sighed.

"Some seer from before Ælfric's time saw what happened to me, and saw me come to the castle. She also saw you come to the castle, and saw me send you away." Harry's tone became sarcastic. "She decided that it wouldn't do to send you away and because she's '_all knowing_', of _course_ what she decides is the right thing to do. So she puts a spell around the castle so that when you came you wouldn't be able to leave unless we both admitted we liked each other. Like, as in friends mind you."

"Of course." Cadence replied promptly, but Harry thought he heard a slight tone of disappointment in her voice. "And how exactly do you know all that? And why so suddenly?" Harry sighed.

"A mental message. The seer decided to grace me with an explanation and left, for lack of a better term, said explanation in the wards so that I would get it when I finally decided that I liked you." Cadence frowned.

"How the heck could she do that? Put a message 'in' the wards?" Harry shrugged.

"It's complicated. I don't feel like explaining it, especially since I don't really know how."

"Oh." They were both silent again, thinking.

"Harry," Cadence said suddenly, "Does it bother you that much that you consider me a friend?" she asked quietly. Harry looked at her like she had grown a second head.

"Course not. It just really bugs the hell out of me when these people decide they can just mess with my life whenever they feel like it." Harry huffed, crossing his arms and glaring into space. Cadence snorted and Harry glanced at her.

"What?" Cadence looked away, hiding a grin.

"Nothing."

"No, seriously, what?" Harry said, giving her a look that he hoped would make her tell him what she had laughed at. Cadence rolled her eyes.

"No, seriously, nothing." She mocked, crossing her eyes and sticking out her tongue at him. Harry raised an eyebrow.

"If it was nothing, you wouldn't have snorted." Cadence's mouth dropped open in indignation.

"_Excuse_ me? I do not snort!"

"Yes, you do. Trust me." Harry retorted, nodding.

"Hmph." Cadence crossed her arms huffily and looked away.

"You snort in a very lady-like way though." Harry amended, his emerald eyes dancing. Cadence glanced at him, an undecided look on her face. Then she let her arms drop.

"Flattery'll get you everywhere." She said, grinning. Harry grinned back.

"You know," Cadence leant back in the chair, putting her hands behind her head, "I didn't know it was possible to snort in a lady-like way."

"Oh, but you do it wonderfully." Harry replied, smirking. Cadence raised her eyebrows at him.

"If I didn't know better, I'd think you were mocking me."

"Mock_ you_? _Moi_? Never!"

"Shut up. We've gotten off track."

"We had a track?"

"Well, duh. We were talking about the wards. Well, really, I was listening and you were whining."

"I was not whining! I was complaining. There's a difference."

"Not according to my thesaurus." Harry blinked.

"That was stupid." He said finally. Cadence sighed.

"You're just jealous of my incredible intellect."

"Incredibly lacking intellect, you mean." Cadence shook her head sadly.

"See what I mean? Trying to one up me. Classic jealous behaviour."

"Stuck up prat."

"Dumb ass jerk."

"You know, now that you can leave, maybe you should."

"Nah. Where would the fun be in that? I would have a much better time staying here and bugging

the hell out of you."

"Maybe you should stop before I turn you into a real bug and squash you."

"You wouldn't do that to li'l ole me!" Cadence gasped, fluttering her eyelashes dramatically.

Harry shook his head, fighting a grin.

"I would."

"Wouldn't."

"Would."

"Wouldn't."

"Would."

"Why don't you come with me?"

"…Eh?"

"Come with me. To my place. I have to check up on my house and pay my neighbour for the extra month she watched the place. And I have to write Amda, or she'll kill me. She'll probably kill me anyways, but if you come I can use you for a shield and therefore live a bit longer."

"Oh, well, now that I know I'll be used as a human shield and probably die, of _course_ I'll go."

"Great! Let's go get packed. I want to leave as soon as possible."

"Wait, you were serious?"

"Well, yeah. You need to get out of the castle for a bit. I'm all for being hermit-ish, but really. There's only so much a normal human being can take."

"Oi! Wait up! Who said I said I would go?"

"You said you would go. You also practically agreed to be my human shield, and I thank you for that."

"Now wait just one bloody second! I did _not_ agree to go!"

"Well, why didn't you?"

"…Er… well…"

"See? No good reason to not come. So let's go."

"But-"

"Oh, come on! It'll be fun! Please?"

"…fine. Maybe."

"YES!"

_**OATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOAT**_

"I _cannot_ believe you talked me into this. How the _hell_ did you talk me into this? I would _never_ have let myself be talked into this if there wasn't some kind of underhanded trick involved!"

"Stop complaining."

"I will not stop complaining until you tell me how you managed to talk me into leaving my castle, taking an _aeroplane_ to _America_, _and_ staying with _you_ for a month on top of that!" Cadence sighed as she searched her backpack for something. They were standing in a corner of a small room filled with cleaning supplies, with one black muggle suitcase on the floor beside them.

"I stayed with you for two months. I think you can last a month with me. Besides, once faced with my irrefutable logic you could not fail to comply with my demands." Harry groaned and covered his face with his hands.

"Would you just tell me how you talked me into it?" Cadence glanced up from her bag and smirked at him.

"That was the easy part. All I had to do was confuse you enough to agree. The hard part was actually getting you to follow through with it." Harry glowered at her in annoyance.

"And that is what I want to know! How did you manage to get me to follow through?" the witch snickered.

"That was the fun bit. Earnulf told me about that cursed salad that is such a wonderful part of your castle, Sir Anthony told me when the cursed time came around, and Beorhtwaru told me how to sneak the salad into your food. So you see, it was a combined effort on all of our parts. They all agreed with me that you needed to get out. You were completely out of it when I took you out of the castle and to the airport. That's why you had a killer headache when you woke up. I swear, that stuff is better than booze." Harry stared at the woman who had said all that so casually. His eyes narrowed.

"Were you not there when I said how much I hate it when people mess with my life?" he demanded, his voice dangerously quiet. To her credit, or to her questionable sanity's credit, Cadence didn't even look at him.

"Yeah. But this isn't messing, technically. You can't honestly tell me that you don't want to go and that you won't have fun. Only you would never have gotten up the courage to actually go. Oh, come on! Where are the stinking tickets? I put them here just this morni - oh. There they are." Harry glared at Cadence, just barely holding on to his temper. Cadence glanced at him and sighed. Slinging her bag over her shoulder, she took a step towards him and looked straight at him.

"Tell me," she said quietly, "_honestly_ tell me that you don't want to go and that I was wrong in making you go and I'll take all your stuff back to the castle and leave and never come back. And if that's what you do want, I won't tell anyone about you." Harry stared back, trying to stay angry. But really, she was right.

He had already explored the entire castle, and his work with Sir Anthony wasn't going anywhere and it was driving him crazy. Add to that the fact that he had always wanted to be on an aeroplane and that America would hold no bad memories for him, maybe it wasn't such a bad idea. And he _had_ agreed to go. He remembered that much. Even if he hadn't been completely willing and been under a spell from really excellent puppy eyes.

'_And then there's the fact that she's right, I never would have gone through with it._'

Harry sighed.

"Right. I'll go. But I swear, if you ever do anything like this again…" Cadence's face lit up in bright, happy smile and she threw her arms around his neck with a squeal. "Cadence," Harry said, looking at her. "I mean it. If you do anything like this again - "

"I know, I know. I'm dead meat. I won't, I promise. And I'm sorry. I just couldn't come up with anything better on such short notice."

"Yeah, sure. You probably just wanted to see me act like I was drunk." Harry said teasingly. While he was still upset at being forced to go on this 'little outing', as Beorhtwaru had said to him the last time he had seen her, Cadence was right. He would enjoy himself. Besides, who was he to give up a free plane ride?

"Well, come on. Here's your ticket." Harry took the piece of paper from Cadence, frowning slightly.

"How'd we get here without anyone noticing?" he asked, following Cadence as she walked casually out of the room they were in, her backpack still slung over one shoulder and suitcase travelling beside her. Harry thought it was being pulled by magic for a moment, before he saw the handle Cadence was holding. She turned and grinned at him, grey eyes twinkling.

"That was actually easier than getting you to agree to come. Which was, by the way, pathetically easy. You have to work up a defence against puppy eyes. Anyways, I shrunk you and put you in my pocket. Then I stayed over night at the airport hotel. Would you hurry up?"

"You _shrunk_ me?" Harry asked, horrified. Cadence nodded, grinning.

"I did. You're so _cute_ when you're tiny! Don't worry, I was really careful with you. Then I brought our stuff to the airport and snuck into this janitor's closet. I biggie sized you - " she seemed to find this incredibly funny, for some reason, " - woke you up and gave you a headache cure. You know everything else. Oh yeah, I also made you black."

"_WHAT_?" Harry hissed, looking down at his hands. His eyes widened in shock. She really had turned him black!

"Well, you can't exactly go around as Harry Potter. I picked up a Daily Prophet, and a muggle paper, when we left the castle and everyone's searching high and low for you. I doubt if they'll look for a black guy."

"But… but what about the muggles? What about customs? I don't have any id for this!"

"Hey, don't worry about it. I've got it all under control. Oh, and here's your passport. Look it over and make sure you know the particulars." Cadence handed him a small pamphlet and continued walking. Harry stared at the pamphlet, then stared after the witch he was, mostly, willingly travelling with.

"Mental. Completely _mental_." He muttered, following her. When he caught up, he tapped her on the shoulder.

"Where's my stuff?"

"In the suitcase, with my stuff. I wasn't sure what you'd want, so I just shrunk everything and stuck it in the bag. You know, you should get some muggle clothes. They're more comfortable, mostly, than wizard stuff."

"You went through my clothes?" Harry asked disbelievingly, fighting a blush.

"Not like that, stupid. I just opened your closet and shrunk everything. Same with the dresser. I didn't see anything." Cadence gave him a sideways glance, a strange sparkle in her eyes. "No matter how much I did want to see." Harry couldn't stop the blush this time, and glared at Cadence when she burst out laughing.

"Finally! I finally made you blush! HAH!" she exclaimed, grinning like a Cheshire cat. Harry paused, staring at her, then rolled his eyes and followed her, being careful to stay a ways behind her. After all, it wouldn't do to have people know he was with the idiot skipping down the hall singing "Anything you can do I can do better!" at the top of her lungs.

OATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOAT

"This is so cool!" Harry exclaimed, looking out the window of the plane. "It's almost better than Quidditch!" beside him, Cadence sighed and covered her face with her hand.

"Yes, Harry, I know. You've already said that. Twenty million umpteenth times! For Christ's sake, we're going to be landing in ten minutes and that's all you've said the entire ride!" Harry smirked.

"I had to get you back somehow. Besides, it was your idea to take a plane. And it is not all I've said the entire time. I've said yes, and no, and please, and when are we going to start, and when are going to land, and I've said that the in-flight movie was really good, and I've said that I had to get back at you somehow, and I've said besides it was your idea and - " Harry's voice suddenly cut off, and he glared at Cadence who was smirking and subtly stroking her wand, which was residing in her pocket.

"I-hay on't-day are-cay if-hay ere-thay are-hay uggles-May around-hay. Ey're-thay robably-pay ust-jay as-hay lad-gay as-hay e-may at-thay ou-yay ave-hay topped-say alking-tay." Harry blinked, rolled his eyes and looked back out the window.

'_She'd just better hope no muggles saw her doing that._' he thought, just as Cadence said,

"And you don't have to worry about muggles, Dotty. I put a notice-me-not charm over us. So there." Harry gave the girl a silent, reproving glare, to which she just grinned.

Looking back out the window, Harry concentrated on his voice. He wanted to see if he could remove the spell wandlessly.

So far, he had been able to cast wandless spells and undo his own spells, but he hadn't tried removing someone else's.

Closing his eyes, Harry concentrated on where he could feel the unnatural block on his voice. He could suddenly picture it in his mind, just as he could see the wards around his castle. This block was different, though, much smaller and a lighter yellow than he had ever seen before. There were also traces of blue through and around the yellow part that was actually the spell, and Harry recognized them to be Cadence's magical signature.

Harry studied the spell for a few moments, then he smirked. If he just touched that spot there with a bit of his magic… Harry slowly let a tendril of his own magic, coloured a bright orange, strangely enough, reach out and touch the centre of the yellow light. The yellow light pulsed for a moment, as if it was resisting Harry's attempt to dispel it, then spluttered, almost indignantly, out of existence. Harry smirked. That had been even easier than he thought.

Turing to Cadence, he grinned mischievously. She was leaning back on her seat, her eyes closed. Harry leant over slowly and quietly and put his mouth very close to her ear.

"Boo." He said casually. Cadence shrieked like a banshee and literally jumped a foot off her seat. Then her arms spun around comically, like a windmill, and she fell forward out of her seat and onto her face.

Harry was doubled over as well as he could be while sitting down, arms wrapped around his stomach and laughing so hard he was crying.

A stewardess came running over to see what had happened, and seemed to be trying to fight her own laughter as Cadence repeatedly hit Harry over the head with her book as he continued laughing.

"You. Stupid. Jerk!" she growled, hitting him on each word for emphasis.

"Excuse me, is there something I can do here?" the stewardess asked, covering her mouth with her hand.

"Yeah, you know a place I can dump his body after I kill him?" Cadence asked, hitting Harry one more time before standing up with a haughty 'humph'. The stewardess grinned at her.

"Actually, there is this little place that no one ever goes…" Cadence's eyes lit up.

"Really?"

"Yeah, it's not to far from the airport after we land and no one would see you going."

"Hey! No fair!" Harry exclaimed, trying to stop himself from laughing. "Two women against one guy are _definitely not_ fair odds!"

"Harry, darling, when are you going to learn that life itself is not fair?" Cadence asked, glancing at Harry with a wicked gleam in her eyes. Harry made a face at her.

"Whatever." He said, looking out the window with a grin that he still couldn't get rid of. Just then, the pilot's voice came through the speakers, asking everyone to please put their seatbelts on, as they would be landing soon. Cadence and the stewardess exchanged one last grin before the stewardess left to help some of the other passengers and Cadence sat down in her chair.

"I'll get you for that you know." She said quietly as she buckled the seat belt. Harry looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"That was my revenge for bringing me here against my will and putting that silencing spell on me."

"Yeah, and those things were my revenge for waking me up with water and leading me through your dungeons in the dark."

"Hey, you brought a cricket bat. I thought that was good enough protection to warrant no lighting."

"It was a _baseball_ bat, not that your puny brain could recognise the difference, and I only brought it because I didn't think you could get rid of a rat as well as a piece of wood." Harry rolled his eyes.

"I'm hurt, Emmee. Cut me real deep that did."

"Course it did. I have that effect on people. What's up with 'Emmee'?"

"Musical Ending. M. E. Emmee."

"Hey!"

"Ow!"

"You asked for it."

"Did not. You called me Dotty first."

"Fine, _Dotty_, you can call me Emmee."

"And I shall, _Emmee_. Believe me, I shall."

"Shut up."

"Of course, Emmee."

"Do you want me to silence you again?"

"That didn't work very well last time, now did it?"

"Shut up."

"Awww! Is poor Emmee sulking?"

"I will hurt you."

"I dare you to try."

"Oh ho, I will. Just wait till we get off this plane and I have enough room. I'll hit you so hard you'll _starve_ before you stop rolling!"

"I do believe you're threatening me."

"AGH!"

OATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOAT

"This is where you live?" Harry asked, looking up at the small, one story house in front of him.

"Yeah, why?" she asked, straightening after giving the taxi driver the money they owed.

"Er… it doesn't really seem… you." Cadence laughed as the taxi drove off.

"It doesn't, does it?" she said, coming to stand beside Harry. "Oh well. It's only temporary. And I haven't had a chance to paint it yet, but believe me, as soon as I do that horrible green is gone." Harry looked at the house speculatively.

"I dunno… that green seems to suit you. It's the house itself that doesn't." Cadence rolled her eyes.

"You would think neon green matches me. Well, c'mon. I'll introduce you to 'Miss Marple'." Grabbing the suitcase, Cadence strode towards the house, painted a nice, respectable baby blue with white trim, beside the small, neon green one.

"Miss Marple?" Harry asked disbelievingly. "Is that actually her name?"

"No, but that's what I call her. She's always trying to solve so-called mysteries. The last ended up being a conspiracy between the grocery store owner and his son to keep selling rotten apples." Cadence made a face at Harry, saying quite obviously her neighbour was mad.

"She's a real dear, though, despite her always thinking there's some kind of mystery around. But if I don't introduce you right away, she'll think you're some kind of Arabian prince that's gone into hiding from an assassin, and that'll explode into us having a torrid love affair with you insisting to stay with me to protect me from said assassin. And somehow you'll be grievously wounded or poisoned or something, leaving me heartbroken, and somehow, her solving the mystery and catching the assassin will, miraculously, save you and restore my heart to whole. And by tomorrow, the entire neighbourhood will have heard of it." Harry gave Cadence a strange look.

"She should write books." He said, and Cadence laughed.

"She has. They're actually pretty good." By then they had reached the door of the other house, and Cadence let go of the suitcase and rang the bell.

"What's that? Oh, I'm coming, hold on just a moment." A voice came from inside the house. A moment later the door opened to reveal a short, white haired, bespectacled woman. She was certainly very old, but she had a certain energy in the way she stood. She kind of reminded Harry of Dumbledore.

'_Stop it!_'

The old woman blinked bemusedly at Harry, then her eyes landed on Cadence and her face lit up.

"Oh! Cadence dearest! You're all right! Oh, I was certain you had been captured by some evil villain! Oh, come in, come in! Please!" Cadence laughed and bent down to hug the woman.

"Hi, Mrs. Prewar. It's good to see you again! I'm really sorry, but we can't come in at the moment. I just came to tell you that I'm all right and introduce my friend to you."

"Oh." The woman said, stepping back from Cadence with a sly look at Harry. "And who is your young man?" Cadence grinned at the look on Harry's face.

"He's not my young man, no matter how much I want him to be. No, this is Harry Adams. Harry, this is Mrs. Prewar. Harry here helped me out of a tight stop, just recently actually." Mrs. Prewar gave Cadence a sharp look.

"Does this 'tight stop' have anything to do with why you're a month late?" Cadence nodded.

"Yes, actually. You see, I had been mistaken for a criminal over in Scotland. I was actually in jail for almost a month, before Harry here found the real girl they were looking for and got me out. I spent a little while with his parents, recuperating from my stay in prison. I got back as soon as I could, and since Harry has always wanted to come to America, I offered to let him stay with me."

"I see." Mrs. Prewar said, eyes gleaming. Harry got the idea that the story was the kind of thing she lived for.

"Anyways, we'd better get going. I promise we'll come over to visit soon. And thank you so much for watching over my place!"

"It wasn't a problem, dearest." Mrs. Prewar said, smiling. Then she leant forwards and said, in a tone of confidentiality, "You should watch out for that woman that lives two doors down from you, across the street. I think she has it in for Tippity!" Cadence nodded gravely.

"Thank you, Mrs. Prewar. Oh, how much do I owe you?" Mrs. Prewar waved her hand.

"Oh, don't worry about that now. You go and get settled back in, and you can pay me when you come to visit."

"All right. Thank you again!" Cadence said, leading Harry down the front steps.

"You are very welcome." Mrs. Prewar called after them. "And tell me when he's your young man!"

"Can do!" Cadence called back, grinning wickedly at Harry. He rolled his eyes. Cadence laughed.

"C'mon, you big wuss. I'll give you the guest bedroom. It's actually more comfortable than mine, seeing as how Amda stays there when she comes over and she refuses to be even the slightest bit uncomfortable." She stopped speaking when they reached the door of the neon green house.

"Here, hold this, would you?" she asked absently, practically throwing the suitcase handle into Harry's hand.

She rummaged around in her backpack a bit, muttering under her breath.

"Ah ha!" she said finally, her hand coming out of the bag with a keychain in its grasp. She quickly flipped through the bunch of keys and lifted one up, and unlocked the door of her house.

"After you," she said, waving Harry forward after she opened the door. Harry gave her a strange look but stepped inside anyways.

He only had time to register that he was standing in a very short, very cramped hallway with a few dark doorways, when something shrieked and launched itself at his head from one of the said dark doorways.

**OATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOATOAT**

End!

Oh. Goodness. Would you look at that! I've left another cliff-hanger. How did that happen? #walks off muttering to herself#

Review!

Hugs,

Hero.


End file.
